


COMEBACK

by stormy1990



Series: Story Of The Underworld [2]
Category: Hey! Say! JUMP, Sexy Zone
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-10-21 07:42:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10680792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stormy1990/pseuds/stormy1990
Summary: A calm life away from the Underground was what Kento and Fuma hoped would await them. But living a calm life also meant to not interfere in other people’s problems and stay out of trouble. While it was normally Fuma who had to watch out to not get into trouble again, this time it was Kento who had to decide which path to take and how to handle the consequences.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I really tried to make this part longer, but unfortunately I failed. I hope you still enjoy reading even if it is this short. Trust me it’s not less painful than the other parts just because it’s shorter :P

 

“If you start laughing now I will definitely make you pay for it in the worst way possible,” Fuma threatened Kento who was standing across the table where Fuma had just put down a basket with vegetables, which he had just gotten from the market early in the morning, so early actually that Kento almost panicked when he had woken up and couldn’t find Fuma anywhere.

“You tired, that’s what counts,” Kento let out with his hand covering the bright smile his lips couldn’t stop from forming. The next moment he whined when Fuma hit him on the back of his head.

“I told you not to laugh!”

Normally it was Kento who brought all the food and did the cooking and cleaning. And even though Fuma was out working, he felt bad for letting him take care of everything. But after Kento had told him that he had gotten a courgette instead of a cucumber and has mistaken the peperoni for paprika, Fuma would have liked a hole to open and swallow him.

“It’s fine, don’t worry. It’s still food and not that much different, so I can still cook with it. But be prepared your food will be spicier than usual,” Kento teased him, but Fuma just rolled his eyes as he got ready for work.

Their house wasn’t the biggest and now that it was already November it got quite cold in it at night, but they had at least a stove and Fuma had promised Kento right away that as soon as he got enough money together they would move to a better and nicer place. But of course Kento had assured him that he didn’t mind where they were living as long as they were together. And the neighborhood was actually quite nice and calm, with a lot of young families living around, as well as older people, so there was mainly no trouble.

Fuma escaped a loud yawn as he got into his jacket and Kento walked up to him to close it for him.

“You shouldn’t have gone to the market so early. You have a long workday in front of you! I could have gone later as usual,” Kento said in a light scolding voice, but didn’t look up at the other one. Instead he proceeded with closing the buttons until he reached the last one at the collar, but before he could close it Fuma grabbed him by the chin and lifted his head up to give him a short kiss. It lasted just long enough to change Kento’s look from confused to relieved and when Fuma backed off again they smiled at each other.

“Don’t worry so much, okay? I want to do something useful from time to time as well, okay I screwed up this time, but I will make up for it.”

Kento chuckled on that and put Fuma’s scarf lightly around his neck. “What are you even saying? Fuma you are working your ass off at that foundry factory, if you should do something than it is resting instead of trying to work even more!”

“Making you happy is not really what I consider work.”

Kento shook his head with a chuckle before he looked up at Fuma with a bright smile and pulled him closer on his scarf until their foreheads were touching. “Being this romantic doesn’t quite fit you.”

Oh, so you want me to be more badass and annoying again?”

“I never considered you annoying,” Kento countered, but he knew of course that Fuma knew that already. “But you are way too much of a tease from time to time.”

“Good to know, then I should maybe take more advantage of that,” Fuma replied before he lifted his head and placed another kiss on Kento’s forehead. “But it has to wait until later or I will get seriously scolded for being late for work.”

“Be careful and don’t get annoyed by the other workers, okay?”

What he actually wanted to say was to not get into a fight with them, because he had lost his first two jobs because of that reason. He had refused to dye his hair black, which had cost him his first workplace and when they found about him and Kento it had ended in a huge fight at the second workplace as well. Kento was just happy that Fuma had held back each time and didn’t harm anyone seriously. Living among the common people was different after all and they wouldn’t need the police hunting them down now that they were finally about to get a hold on their little happiness.

“I promise to be as tame as possible, like every day.”

“You managed almost a month, so I guess I can believe you by now,” Kento added before he finally released him and waved after him as he left without letting himself get distracted by Kento again or he would still remain somehow tangled with him at their entrance door for the rest of the day.

Kento let out a sigh as he slid the door shut behind Fuma. The other one really tried his best to adapt to their new life style and while Kento had no problems with it at all, because he had lived a pretty normal life before his life was turned upside down through the war as well. But for Fuma it was different! He knew about a few parts, like that Hokuto had been one of his best friends and that they had left Fuma’s parents behind on his father’s order. But he still felt like there were thousands of facets he still didn’t know the slightest thing about and it made him feel kind of guilty for being the reason that Fuma had left the place behind he had called home after the war until now. But he had promised to himself to not let it show in front of the other one, after all it would make him feel even worse and all he wanted to protect for now was Fuma’s smile.

***

A few hours later Kento also left the house, because staying home wasn’t really what he liked. He had offered Fuma so often to work at least half a day, but the younger one had told him to leave the working part to him for now.

Lost in his thoughts he went through their neighborhood, a few people greeting him here and there. Suddenly arms closed around his hips and he flinched out of surprise, but when he turned around he found the neighbor’s daughter smiling up at him.

“Morning, O-Nii-san,” she greeted him and Kento ruffled through her hair before he crouched down with a bright smile.

“Morning,” Kento replied and the girl’s smile grew even wider. She had somehow called him O-Nii-san from the first day they had moved here and even though she was just six years old, she seemed really good in judging people’s personalities. Which resulted with Fuma being the grumpy O-Nii-san of course, but as much as Fuma liked picking fights, with a small girl even he would hold back.

“Where is your real brother by the way?” Kento asked as he looked around and realized that she was alone.

“He is still sleeping. He was gone almost the whole night again.”

“Again?” Kento asked worried, because the boy wasn’t really a bad person, but lately he was sneaking out the house when their mother was sleeping and being just a teenager it worried Kento a little bit.

“Can you play with me instead?” The girl asked and tugged on his sleeve, but Kento got up and gave her an apologizing smile.

“Next time okay? I have to get some things, but in the evening when I come back we can play a little bit, okay?”

The girl nodded and let out a joyful laughter before she ran over to some other kids which were playing on their small street. Kento was ready to leave when he saw that her brother had woken up and stepped out the house. He would normally not interfere, but something caught his eye and he walked over to him.

“Morning, Sou.”

The boy didn’t even try to greet him properly and just gave him a brief nod, before he tried to sneak away. But Kento grabbed him by the elbow on which Sou flicked his tongue as he turned back to him.

“What?” The boy let out annoyed, even though he knew of course what made Kento stop him.

“Did your mother see your face?”

“No she didn’t. She left early for work in the morning,” Sou explained and ripped his arm out of Kento’s grip, but didn’t try to turn away again. Instead he crossed his arms in front of his chest and waited for the preaching which was definitely about to come.

“Sou, I know that it must be hard with just your mother and your little sister, but when there is something that troubles you please talk to someone okay? If you can’t talk to them, talk to me or to any of your friends.”

“Oh there are not so many to choose from, unfortunately,” Sou shot back at him, but Kento wouldn’t lose his patience now.

“Did you get in a fight with your friends?” Kento asked carefully, trying to get an explanation for the boy’s bruised cheek.

“If they had been my friends I would have hold back trust me,” Sou let out in a low voice and the next moment Kento grabbed his arms again to take a look at his fingers. Sou pulled away of course, but he had seen the bruises on his hands as well and suddenly Sou seemed to get smaller with every passing second.

“What was the reason for the fight?”

“That is none of your business,” Sou hissed back at him, but his anger got slowly replaced by some kind of sorrow and Kento knew this kind of look and he didn’t like it.

“Please Sou, before whatever is going on can escalate, tell me what is going on! You can always ask for help! Think about your family as well, okay?”

Somehow that had made the trick and Sou bit his lip and nodded reluctantly. Kento formed a faint smile on that and clapped the boy on the shoulder. “You are not alone, remember that!”

He didn’t wait for an answer and pushed him towards the direction of his sister instead. “Keep her busy until I come back, I promised her to play with her in the evening. I somehow doubt that you will go to school today, right?”

This time it was Sou who formed a smile, a really sheepishly one, but he couldn’t really hide much from Kento anymore. After all he was a good boy and was normally taking really good care of his family as the only man in the house.

“Hope you come back early then, you know how impatient she can be,” Sou answered before he turned to his sister while Kento looked after him with a worried, yet hoping smile. They all had their worries and problems and even though he didn’t like it to butt into private matters of other people, he hoped that the boy was going to be alright.

***

Fuma went up to the rooftop for his lunchbreak as he normally did. It wasn’t as if he was on bad terms with the other workers, but he just didn’t want to risk getting provoked in any kind of way. He lay down on the wide railing and closed his eyes for a moment. Even though it was already pretty cold even at daytime, the sun made it still pleasant.

“But can you believe that they came out of nowhere?”

“Until now they seem pretty calm, but what if they try to make a move?”

Fuma turned a little bit to the side and looked down to the few benches which were located next to the building. The roof wasn’t that high, because the building had just two floors, so Fuma could hear the voices of the two workers sitting downstairs perfectly.

Not in the mood to get disturbed in his lunchbreak he got ready to search for a calmer spot.

“If they really try to break the Titanium Triangle, then this could affect us as well.”

“And they are even close by, they interfere with the Reapers territories, which could bring a lot of trouble.”

That actually made Fuma freeze to the spot and he remained seated with a weird feeling in his stomach. Now there was even less reason for him to remain here and listen to them, but somehow his body refused to move.

“I just hope that new troop won’t bring any trouble towards us, what were they called?”

“Storm Warriors, if I remember correctly. Their leader seems extremely calm, but he freaks quite easily if you oppose him.”

That wasn’t exactly something Fuma wanted to hear, because even if he tried to ignore it, that kind of changes around the Underground could affect them quite easily and especially because the Reapers name fell as well he felt uneasy right away. But it was just a random talk about an unimportant new troop, right? As if the Reapers would let them get into control of anything near their territory.

Fuma walked away from his place before he could catch even more of their conversation. What he didn’t know he couldn’t keep a secret from Kento. So knowing nothing was the best for both of them. They had found a new life and a nice place to live, without all the trouble and chaos around them. Fuma would do everything to keep it like this and pretending that nothing was wrong was the first step to do so.

***

“Morning Kento,” the old man at the small fruit shop greeted him. “Your friend came early in the morning and bought some things.”

“Yes he proudly presented them to me,” Kento replied with a bright smile.

“He is a really nice and polite boy. He would make a good husband, maybe I should introduce my niece to him,” the man said laughing and slowly Kento’s smile faded, but he still tried to keep a poker face. The people around town thought they were best friends living together, what else did he expect? He couldn’t get angry at them, why should he? After all they were all really nice to them around this area. There was no way that he would risk their happiness, even though that meant to live a lie to the outside. It was a small sacrifice compared what they had gone through until now.

“So I guess you are going to make a few errands?”

“Yes, nothing special though. I just didn’t feel like staying home,” Kento answered as neutral as he could and bowed towards the man with a brief smile before he kept walking down the main street filled with a lot of small shops. People kept greeting him here and there, asking how everything was going and if Fuma was well. He was really happy about their concern after all they were still young and new in this area. Giving the boys fresh fish or fruits as a present had become something like a habit of the shop owners, even though Kento had tried to stop them so often.

After about fifteen minutes he had already received two fresh baked breads and some salmons and he let out a sigh and shook his head with a smile. He was so bad in refusing and each time he tried to give them money for it they scolded him. After all he would normally give at least half of it to Sou and his family, because he knew how hard it was for them. Sou had of course freaked out at him first, because he didn’t want to accept charities from him, but in the end he couldn’t deny that for the sake of his family he should accept it.

“What did you say? Are you making fun of us?”

Kento’s look fell on a few boys a few meters away from him. The smallest and also youngest of them actually seemed to make the biggest ruckus. The others didn’t really seem in the mood to stop him, so they just supported his shouting, even though it didn’t seem to Kento as if there was any reason to. He knew the owners of the shop they were standing in front of and it was a nice lady with her son. The son was already trying to calm him down and apologized for whatever the shorter boy thought he had said that would have insulted him. But then the boy kicked away one of the shelves they had in front of the shop, throwing down the dishes which were on it. The mother ran over to pick the pieces up right away with an angry stare towards the intruders after all she made them herself. Selling those was what they both needed for living and her son pushed the boy away with an angry shout, but of course the others attacked him on that.

Without any hesitation Kento let everything he was holding drop to the ground and ran over to them. Instead of joining the fight he jumped in between them before the son could get himself into even more trouble.

“Calm down! If they destroy your shop what will happen to your mother?” Kento whispered in a calming voice as he pushed the boy back towards his mother. He wasn’t just outnumbered, but also not a good fighter, not that Kento could show so much more fighting skills.

“Hey, what do you think you are doing?” The boy shouted at him, but Kento stepped in front of the group right away to stop them from getting near the owners again and luckily the son didn’t try to attack them again.

“The boy apologized to you, right? I didn’t hear what he said to insult you, but an apology shouldn’t lead to you destroying there shop. Would you please leave them alone?”

“Oh so we have a really protective citizen here, I guess?” The boy asked with an excited look.

Kento took a step back when the other one moved forward threatening, but then one of his companions grabbed him by the shoulder.

“Ren, stop. We will get into trouble,” the other one said and pointed towards the end of the street where luckily two policemen stepped in for a patrol.

“What a shame and here I thought I would get some fun,” Ren said disappointed with a lopsided smile towards Kento before he stepped back and vanished with the others in one of the side alleys.

Kento thought about running up to the police officers, but maybe it would just bring the shop owners even more trouble. Those boys just seemed to have fun getting into fights without any good reason. But somehow Kento got even more worried, because he had never seen them before. If they showed up more often he had to think about something and telling Fuma about it wasn’t an option of that thinking. As soon as the boy would learn about it he would try and scare them away. But sending Fuma back in any kind of fights wasn’t something Kento wanted. He asked the owners once more if they were okay before he got his things and left again.

He could just hope that they weren’t staying in this area for long or it would definitely not end without a lot of trouble. For now he could just hope that Fuma wouldn’t cross their way.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

“I’m home,” Fuma said exhausted as he shut the door behind him and got out of his shoes.

“Welcome back,” Kento greeted him with a bright smile and walked up to him, leaving the food he was cooking alone for a moment. “How was your day?” He asked before he greeted him with a small peck on the lips, but when he tried to back off Fuma closed his arms around his back and pulled him into a tight hug.

“Fuma?”

“Mh?” The boy let out while hiding his face on the boy’s neck.

“What is it?”

“Nothing, I just missed you.”

Kento escaped a chuckle on that before he patted Fuma on his hair. “Idiot, you are just out for a few hours, how can you miss me that much already?”

“One minute apart from you is already too much.”

“Oh now we are getting extremely romantic, aren’t we?” Kento said teasingly and Fuma finally pulled back a little bit to give him a teasing smile.

“You don’t like it?”

“Are you kidding me? If I have to choose between the you that is running around shouting at people and tries to keep as many emotions locked up as possible at the same time, and between the you that is totally aware of his own feelings and has no fear of saying them out loud, then you can bet that the cheesy you is my most favorite.”

“Mh, not sure if I liked your explanation right now, but I leave it as it is,” Fuma complained and before Kento could say anything else he kissed him again and lifted him up so that Kento closed his legs around his hips right away when he carried him more inside. It was obvious that he aimed for the bedroom, but suddenly Kento started struggling and pulled back.

“Not yet,” he said with a serious expression on which Fuma lifted an eyebrow at him.

“What? You really want me to postpone this? Don’t be so cruel!”

“Just about one minute, at least if you let me down. If you don’t then we will burn down the whole kitchen while we are busy.”

“Oh,” Fuma let out with a small chuckle as he understood what Kento meant and let the other one down to let him erase the fire at the cooking place.

“I guess the food can wait until-”

Fuma had walked up to him right away and attacked him with another kiss the moment he turned around. Kento’s lips curled up against the younger one’s as Fuma carried him once more and walked impatiently over to their bedroom, dropping him carefully on the futon.

“Are you sure nothing happened?” Kento asked again, even though he knew he should shut up. After all he could use some distraction as well. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t lie if he said everything was okay.

“I am with you, so yes everything is perfect,” Fuma whispered as he moved his lips up and down his neck, moving his tongue out teasingly on the way. Kento let out a long breath on that, but kept any further talk for later, what was the meaning of ruining the mood?

Fuma had never been the patient type, but with Kento he always tried to be as careful as possible, but sometimes the older one hated it.

His touch was careful, never rough. His kisses passionate, but never too longing and it made Kento feel like something was always missing. As always Fuma teased him with his lips on his upper body as he opened his shirt button by button and yes Kento enjoyed it, but a bite here and there wouldn’t hurt too much, right?

Fuma sat up and stripped out of his own shirt and proceeded to do the same with his pants before he started working on Kento’s pants while he moved with his lips back to his face, kissing him on the forehead. It was already like a routine by now, something Kento liked of course, but also something he wanted to change so badly and who was Fuma kidding, even if nothing bad had happened, there was at least something that bothered him and taking it slow and calm wouldn’t really help him.

When Fuma gave him another passionate kiss he pulled Kento’s pants down at the same time and Kento kicked them away and threw his arms around Fuma’s neck to pull him closer. Fuma seemed surprised by his sudden greedy behavior, but he didn’t pull back. Slowly he moved his hands over Kento’s chest and then one hand slipped towards his back, but of course as always he pulled back right away and tensed. And that was when Kento snapped.

Taking Fuma by full surprise he kicked one knee away and turned them around, crawling on top of him. Fuma was about to say something and tried to hold him up on his shoulders, but Kento slashed away his hand and gave him a deep kiss. Even when Fuma tried to pull away in the need of air, Kento just pulled back enough to give him the needed air, but his teeth buried in the other one’s lip with so much force that Fuma let out a hiss and grabbed Kento by the shoulders again.

Always being the weak one everyone had to take care of. Don’t talk about the past, be careful with your words and your actions, don’t hurt him! And of course don’t touch his scars on the back! It seemed like those words were stuck in Fuma’s head like some golden rules how he had to handle him, but he didn’t want them, he didn’t need them. All he needed was Fuma, the way he was, open, aggressive and forward. He didn’t want him to jump into any kind of fight out of rage, but this was a different matter and Kento would make sure to finally talk to him clear and direct, but for now actions would have to be enough. Words needed to wait.

“Kento…”

“Shut up!” Kento shot back without knowing where he got that attitude from. Fuma seemed kind of startled, but he wasn’t really struggling, but also not really following his pace, which made Kento take it even further. He moved his lips down to Fuma’s jawline biting there as well before he moved even lower, moving his tongue over Fuma’s upper body, feeling more than pleased with the way Fuma shivered under him.

Then his hands reached Fuma’s underwear and the younger one tried to sit up, but Kento shot him an angry glare and Fuma bit his lip and just moved his hips up to make it easier for Kento to take them off. At least he knew Kento well enough by now to realize when it was his time to talk things out and when he should just shut up and see what was happening.

After Kento had finally tossed both of their underwear to the ground Fuma was sure that he would crawl up again, but he remained where he was and moved his hands teasingly over Fuma’s thighs on which the boy took a deep breath his eyes locked with Kento’s.

The older one kept looking at him with an intense stare even as he took the other one’s erection in one hand. One slow stroke was enough to make Fuma unable to hold his stare and he closed his eyes and let out a low moan.

“Kento, what-” The rest of his words died in his throat when Kento didn’t hesitate and took him in his mouth. What had gotten into him was definitely the question he wanted to state, but the talking part had to wait until later after all and through the way Fuma was unable to hold back his moans and suddenly grabbed Kento by the hair way harsher as he would normally do Kento knew that he had gotten at least that Kento wasn’t planning on taking it slow tonight.

But he was also not planning on getting over with this fast, so he backed off after a while and sat up on his knees, giving Fuma the break he needed to catch his breath and look up at him.

With a satisfied smile Kento leant down to him and gave him another kiss and this time Fuma reacted as greedy as him and grabbed him by the neck, deepening the kiss even more.

“Wow,” was all he could let out with a heavy breath against the other one’s lips and Kento escaped a low chuckle before he moved his lips to Fuma’s ear and bit in his earlobe teasingly.

“You like it?”

Of course he liked it and so Fuma nodded right away which made Kento sit up again and he moved his fingers over Fuma’s cheek until he had reached his mouth. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what he wanted and he took Kento’s fingers in his mouth and started sucking on them, covering them with salvia on the way.

Fuma’s excitement had already reached an higher level than ever before, but when Kento pulled his fingers away again and started preparing himself his eyes shined as if they could actually start burning every moment now. He had his hands on Kento’s hips to support him and couldn’t stop his hips from rocking up from time to time, which resulted with Kento’s movements getting even faster as he tried to be done as fast as possible.

“You’re having enough fun by yourself as I see,” Fuma teased him as Kento escaped a moan on his own finger movements and he bit his lips right away as he looked down at Fuma kind of guilty. “Tell me if I am not needed anymore,” Fuma kept teasing, but the next moment Kento was done and shifted back, taking Fuma’s erection into his hand and giving the tip a rough stroke on which Fuma let out a way too needy sound.

“But who is taking care of you if not me?” Kento asked with a greedy look before he lowered himself slowly, but steady.

Fuma couldn’t take his eyes of him from then on. Kento moved fast and without any hesitation, which made Fuma rock his hips up as well. With a low moan Kento threw his head to the back before he dropped to the front to be able to kiss Fuma again. This time the younger one didn’t hesitate to explore his back with his hands which gave Kento shivers, but he couldn’t deny that he enjoyed it. That was what he had been waiting for. Fuma had to learn not to touch him with kid cloves all the time. It could hurt him as well!

This time it was Kento who hissed when Fuma suddenly bit him on the lip, but licked over it right away as if he wanted to apologize.

Their rhythm got faster in just several minutes and they needed longer breaks between their kisses to breathe and in the end they gave up, Kento sitting up and releasing a loud moan as he came first. Fuma tightened his grip on his hips and rocked his hips up roughly and followed seconds later.

Without being able to even catch his breath Kento fell to the front and Fuma caught him on the shoulders, letting him rest on his chest. He closed his arms around his back and gave him a kiss on the head.

“I wonder who of us needed this more,” Fuma let out after a few minutes of silence on which Kento finally moved off him to sneak in his arms with his forehead resting on his chest. Fuma proceeded to throw the covers over them and gave him another kiss on the head.

“Maybe we just both needed it out of different reasons, but I am happy that you allowed me to handle it my way.”

“As if I could forbid you something, I am not your mother.”

Kento chuckled on that, but didn’t respond with the snarky comment he had prepared. After all Fuma was perfect in behaving overprotective when it was about him, but maybe he had finally made a good point, showing Fuma that he didn’t need to handle him that careful all the time.

***

The next two weeks passed without any kind of incidences, much to Kento’s relief. Okay at least no incidence regarding them. But he worried a lot about Sou, because the boy had started vanishing even more often and his little sister came crying towards Kento a lot when he yelled at her for asking too many questions.

Sou was good in avoiding Kento most of them time, but of course the older one wouldn’t let him off that easily. His sister had already told him that he came back with new bruises from time to time and his mood had dropped a lot, but even though his mother had scolded him a lot as well, he would just vanish again. And then his mother had found a huge amount of money in their house and who wouldn’t be able to connect the dots? But Sou pretended to know nothing and told his mother to just use the money and not worry about where it came from. In the end she had really kept the money for the sake of her children, but that happening had made Kento finally take action and he sneaked out their house before dawn, knowing that Sou would definitely be out again and come back soon.

Letting Fuma know at this point could end in a huge fight, so that was something he definitely didn’t want, even though he felt a little bit bad for telling him every evening that everything in their neighborhood went okay.

Faint noises made him look up and he hid behind the corner of their house as he heard footsteps.

“So I hope you got the plan?”

“I’m not stupid, of course I got it.” Sou was heard next to the other one with a snappy tone.

Suddenly they stopped and Kento could hear how Sou gasped right before a small impact was heard, but Kento didn’t dare to look around the corner, they were too close by. But he was sure that the other one had just shoved him against the nearest wall.

“I warn you, if you take this lightly I make sure that you will get punished first if something goes wrong.”

Silence followed on his words and Kento held his breath in shock. Not because of what he had said, but because of who had said it. He knew that voice and finally he dared to spy carefully around the corner, finding exactly who he thought he would.

Sou was standing with his back on the wall, with Ren pressing him against it on his collar. Kento made a step forward, but held back at the last moment, when Ren released him and stepped back.

“It’s two more days. Don’t screw up or we will screw you and your family up!”

The threat was clear and suddenly Kento felt stupid for even doubting the boy for a single second. Receiving money from them for his family so that he would follow their rules was one thing, but getting threaten like this if he didn’t cooperate was another level. What Kento couldn’t understand though was why they had chosen him? He was still way too young to hang around the clubs or Underground areas without appearing extremely suspicious or did they hope no one would see him as a threat exactly because he was still so young?

Ren disappeared without another word and Kento didn’t follow Sou as he entered his house, pausing in front of it, taking a deep breath before he entered.

So the situation had turned out the worst he could have imagined. Now the question was what he should do and what he actually could do? Should he finally ask Fuma for help? But knowing that it would definitely lead to a fight with some Underground members he didn’t want to take that step. Fuma had sacrificed so much to give Kento a calm life he couldn’t burden him with something like this. But he also couldn’t just sit back and do nothing. He could talk directly to Sou, but what was the boy supposed to do? Even with Kento’s help they wouldn’t stand a chance and that was when an idea crossed Kento’s mind. He tried to get it out of his head right away the thought itself was ridiculous from the first second. But was there another way when he wanted to help the boy? What could he do without getting himself into too much trouble and without dragging Fuma in the whole mess?

He had to at least try even though his own idea made him fell nauseous already. He still had two days. So for now he had to try his best and pretend in the morning that everything was alright. Everything else had to wait for later. The question was if he was strong enough to handle the burden he had just loaded himself with to rescue the boy.


	3. Chapter 3

“See you in the evening,” Fuma said before he gave Kento a small peck on the lips. Kento smiled after him as every morning, a faked smile which hurt him more than anything else he had done since they had come here. They had started over and even with a few obstacles in their way they had succeeded in making it until here, but now their new found happiness would be put to the test.

Without thinking about it too much Kento got ready as well, this time without any intentions of going to any shops or having nice talks with their neighbors. He walked through the streets fast, knowing his goal perfectly. He thanked all the gods that he hadn’t run into Sou or his family in the morning, it would have made the situation even worse.

Slowly the calm surrounding of their neighborhood disappeared and got replaced by bars, clubs and shouting people. Kento had never liked it here, but he still kept going, trying to not drag any kind of attention towards him. With his face muffled in his scarf and his hands in his pockets he kept moving to the backstreets, scared of his own knowledge of the place. And then he finally stopped. The building in front of him carrying so many painful memories that he felt like screaming and running away, but he had returned for a good reason. As always his surroundings were way too quiet at daytime, but he was sure that some eyes were already resting on him. Nevertheless he finally demanded his legs to move and he opened the door which moved with a squeaking noise. It was still the same. The long white counter in front of the dance floor. The staircase at the end leading up to the VIP area with the white couches.

“Who are you?”

He wasn’t even surprised as someone approached him with a threatening look and his hand behind his back signaled him that he was armed. And who wouldn’t be by the chaos that was slowly increasing in their area.

The boy in front of him had black long hair, put back in a ponytail with a few long strands falling in his face. He hadn’t seen him before and something on his look told him that he wasn’t part of this place until some time ago.

“I came to see your leader.”

“Out of what reason?”

“I have a favor to ask of him.”

The other one let out a chuckle on that and raised an eyebrow in disbelieves. “Oh and who do you think you are that he would gain you a favor?”

It was a fair question, because their leader wasn’t known to be cooperative, especially not without payment, but in this case it was different.

“Tell him that Kento has come to see him.”

The other one had obviously prepared some snappy answer, but no words came out when he opened his mouth. Instead he kept staring at him in a loss, scanning him as if he couldn’t believe who was standing in front of him, which made Kento feel more than exposed out of a sudden.

“Kento?”

“Yes…” Kento replied in a low voice, not sure why the other one seemed so troubled out of a sudden.

“Follow me,” was all the other one said as he finally snapped out of it and walked up to the stair case. A lot of bad memories haunted him when they moved up to the second floor and his heart felt heavy and ready to jump out of his chest when they walked up to the couch at the center of the room. About a dozen people were standing and sitting around it, but Kento spotted him right away. Sitting in the middle of the white couch, his eyes fixed on a map in front of him.

“Ryosuke, you have a visitor,” the one who had brought him upstairs addressed his leader, but the one in question just waved his hand, not looking up.

“I’m busy, make him leave.”

“It’s Kento.”

The mention of his name made the leader almost jump up. He jolted and turned his head to search for him and then their eyes met, so many things showing in Ryosuke’s eyes that Kento wasn’t sure if it was something positive or negative.

“The meeting is over,” Ryosuke announced without any hesitation and the other members hurried to roll up the map and take the other papers from the table before their vanished downstairs. Just the boy from before remained, walking up to Ryosuke who was still staring at Kento. Just when the other one touched him lightly on the arm and whispered something in his ear he finally showed a reaction. He squeezed the boy’s hand and gave him a brief smile, which actually confused Kento, because he had never seen such an honest expression on his face.

“It’s okay, don’t worry,” Ryosuke replied before the boy also walked towards the stairs reluctantly, looking up at Kento with a difficult to interpret look. A lot had changed at the Reapers since they had helped them restore balance to the Titanium Triangle.

“Kento…” Ryosuke started in an almost careful tone, as if he didn’t want to scare him. Kento looked at him with a neutral expression and moved up to the couch when Ryosuke pointed at the free space next to him. But instead of taking his offer he sat down on the armchair next to it on which a shadow passed Ryosuke’s face.

“What brings you here?” He asked when the silence between them seemed to start physically hurting.

“I actually thought a lot about if I should come and ask you for help or not,” Kento started careful, even though it was actually a lie. Hadn’t he decided right away? But pretending that it was a hard decision actually made his betrayal towards Fuma seem not as bad, so for now he would just continue as if this decision was way harder than it actually was.

“Help regarding what? Can’t Fuma help you?” The calmness in Ryosuke’s voice startled him more and more with each new sentence. There was no trace of his usual mocking and carefree smile, but his new expression wasn’t something bad. He seemed thoughtful and careful about what he was saying.

“I can’t risk putting him into any kind of danger again.”

Ryosuke just nodded. They knew each other good enough to know that there was no need for further explanations. Ryosuke should know best how protective Kento was about Fuma, so he didn’t even question him about it any further.

“There is a new troop around the area, causing trouble to neighborhood.”

Ryosuke didn’t even seem surprised by that statement, which made Kento’s look darken. “You know about them, don’t you?”

Without answering Ryosuke got up and took two glasses and a bottle from the nearest table and placed them on their table, filling them up and handing one of the glasses to Kento. It took both of them by surprise that he actually accepted the drink. The change in Ryosuke’s attitude made him feel calmer than he maybe should feel, but Ryosuke cracked a brief smile before he drank as well and placed the glass back on the table.

“There is a troop called Storm Warriors, which has caused some trouble here and there. We also heard that they interfered in areas they should get their hands off.”

“But of course you thought it wasn’t your business,” Kento shot back at him angrier than he wanted and he grabbed the glass in his hand with more force to calm down.

“Did they move again? My members told me that they had made sure over the last weeks that your area was safe.”

Suddenly Kento felt more than stupid. Of course it had been them. He should have realized it the moment Ren and the others hadn’t shown up at their market place again for weeks.

That he had seen him with Sou was a different topic, they weren’t walking around town to cause trouble after all.

“Sorry,” Kento let out kind of embarrassed. He had more than every right in the world to still doubt Ryosuke. He could treat him like trash and shouldn’t feel guilty about it, because after all he had been the one messing with him and his relationship. But somehow he couldn’t hold a grudge or at least not as much as he should. He still couldn’t calm down in this surrounding and he was still extremely careful with how he acted around the other one, but something had changed Ryosuke, or someone.

“But something happened, right? Are the Storm Warriors involved?” Ryosuke went back to the topic right away, which made Kento relax a little bit again.

“To be honest I am not sure if it’s them, I just know one name. There is a boy called Ren and he is threatening the son of one of our neighbors.

“Black hair, evil smirk and dangerous eyes?”

This description could fit on almost everyone in the Underground, but somehow Kento knew that they were talking about the same person and he nodded.

“So you want me to take care of him?”

“No!” Kento replied harsher than he wanted, but Ryosuke didn’t seem startled by his reaction. “They seem to be up to something that will take place tomorrow evening and I don’t want the boy to get hurt, but I doubt I can stop him from going there. And even if I could stop him, then they would come and punish him for not showing up.”

“Mhh...this is not an easy request. Interfering in their territories which are not crossing ours might end in a huge fight between the troops.”

Of course Kento was aware of that from the start, but he wanted to at least try and ask him for help.

“What’s the boy’s name?”

“Sou.”

Ryosuke just nodded, not asking further questions. Kento took a sip of his glass before he placed it on the table with a sigh. The older one looked at him curiously and seemed more than surprised when he got up, but he didn’t try to stop him.

“I am not asking you to step into any kind of fight if you don’t want to. I have no right to ask something like this of you.” Another lie, but he wouldn’t use the past happenings to his advantage, at least not directly. “I won’t stand on the sideline, letting the boy run into his own death, because whatever they promised him won’t come true in the end. The Underground is filled with lies and the new troops don’t seem to carry on with your family tradition. They are way more dangerous than the Titanium Triangle and when you don’t watch out they could become a threat even to you.”

It was the first time that one of Ryosuke’s former expressions showed up on his face. A smirk, filled with confidence at least that is what he wanted it to be seen as. But Kento could read him perfectly by now and he saw the insecurity behind it, the fear that he could be true.

“Now you are getting a little bit too dramatic, but let me assure you that I will think about your request.”

Ryosuke stood up as well and stretched out his arm towards the stair case, signaling Kento that he was free to go. After all he had come on his own this time and the fact that Ryosuke had not spend him even a single inappropriate look made Kento hope that he could actually count on his help, even if Ryosuke wanted to make it look as if the oh so mighty Reapers didn’t have to bother with small fished like the Storm Warriors.

“Keito, would you escort him back?”

The boy from before had waited for them at the first floor, next to the door and for a moment he raised his eyebrow, giving a skeptical look towards Kento.

“Please?” Ryosuke tried again on which Keito let out a sigh before he opened the door and signaled Kento to step out first.

“Just because it’s you,” Keito answered with a played angry tone on which Ryosuke chuckled and even though Kento tried to not stare at them too much as he waited outside he didn’t miss the movement of Ryosuke’s hand over the boy’s cheek and the other one’s smile on the touch.

When Keito stepped outside Kento turned away right away, acting as if he hadn’t seen anything. But he had to smile to himself while he followed Keito through the backstreets, because he had finally found out why Ryosuke had changed and seeing that Keito seemed to be with him out of the complete right reason made him kind of happy.


	4. Chapter 4

Without knowing if Ryosuke was actually going to help the boy or not, Kento found himself standing around the corner of Sou’s house two evenings later.

Lying to Fuma over the last two days had been an extremely hard challenge, but luckily Fuma seemed too tired from his work to get suspicious. At some point Kento wondered if he even had to try so hard to keep a straight face, because Fuma didn’t seem to spend him so much attention anyways. When he had excused himself to bed earlier than usual, Kento had used the opportunity to sneak out. If Fuma got up again, he could still say that he had just went for a small walk.

He was ripped out of his thoughts when he heard the door of the house opening, revealing a really stressed looking Sou. With the hood of his jacket pulled deep into his face and his scarf up to his nose he walked away with fast steps and Kento followed him a few moments later, making sure not to be seen.

As he had somehow already expected they ended up inside the Reapers’ area which made the whole situation even worse, but Sou kept moving, ignoring all the clubs and gamble places around. When he finally stopped in front of a building and took a last hesitant look to the left and right before he entered Kento needed a moment to follow, because of all places he hadn’t expected to end up right at the Reapers hideout. Sure it was their main bar and really popular if you weren’t actually their enemy, but the Storm Warriors shouldn’t be allowed around, right? Was that why they had send Sou instead?

Kento finally stepped inside as well, finding the club as crowded as usual and of course he had lost sight of the boy right away. Slightly panicking he moved over to the bar first, trying to somehow find him, but it wasn’t that easy with all the people around. First he wanted to take a look around the dance floor, but then he spotted the boy sneaking up to the second floor and he tried to dash away from the counter, right through all the people. The result actually delayed everything, because he had stumbled and the person in his way ended up with his drink all over his white shirt.

“Sorry,” Kento said with a bow towards the boy with unusual ash colored hair. Somehow this place was his bad luck charm when it was about accidents with drinks and he could just hope that he wouldn’t end up in some huge chaos right away.

“This is why I told you not to wear white,” Another boy next to them said with a grin. He was taller than the other one and with blonde hair. The other one rolled his eyes with a growl, but moved towards the toilet without spending Kento any attention at all.

“Relax, you look like you just killed someone or will get killed,” the blonde boy said laughing and clapped Kento on the shoulder. “But you better leave before he comes back, not that he snaps at you after he comes back.”

Kento apologized again, even though he should apologize to the other boy, but as his friend had just said, he shouldn’t wait for him and he actually didn’t want to. With a last bow he kept moving and found his way to the staircase fast. Of course he was stopped by Ryosuke’s men first, but right before he wanted to explain why they should let him through a hand landed on his shoulder.

“It’s okay, let him through,” Keito said as he stepped next to him with a scolding look and Kento formed an apologizing smile before they both walked upstairs.

“Why did you come?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” Kento was sure that Ryosuke had told Keito about their conversation, so without receiving a clear answer from Ryosuke he wouldn’t leave the boy alone.

“I followed the boy the whole way until here, but I also followed you of course and I have to tell you that you suck at spying on someone. There were so many chances for the boy to see you.”

Kento blinked at him in confusion as they had reached the top of the stairs. For now he ignored his teasing and concentrated on the important part. “Ryosuke asked you to take a look at him?”

“More or less, yes. But I actually didn’t expect him to show up here,” Keito explained on which both finally turned and tried to find the boy.

“Where’s Ryosuke?” Kento asked, suddenly worried as he couldn’t spot the leader. Instead of answering Keito walked through the room with fast steps, followed by Kento. The Reapers’ members had some special rooms at the back of the VIP area and even though Kento didn’t want to enter them again as he knew perfectly of their existence he followed Keito through the door out of the club and down the corridor. The next moment they heard something clashing to the ground and a pained yelp which made Keito dash forward right away.

Kento ran after him and when they entered the office like room they had heard the noise from they found Ryosuke staring back at them with a calm expression. Too calm for what had actually happen.

“Damnit, Ryosuke! There must have been another way to stop his attack,” Keito scolded him, but Kento’s eyes were on the other person in the room. It was Sou and he was on the ground, holding his head in pain. Some glass fragments lying around him on the floor. Ryosuke had obviously used a glass vase to attack the boy and Kento looked up ready to shout at Ryosuke, but then he realized that Keito hadn’t meant Sou when he had said another way to stop the attack. With wide eyes Kento stared at Ryosuke’s hand, the sharp end of a knife tightly grabbed between his fingers.

“Ryosuke, let go,” Keito said in a calm voice when he had gotten some bandages from one of the closest drawer and when he reached out for Ryosuke’s hand to help him open his hand the leader’s expression finally changed and he took a sharp breath before he was finally able to release the knife. The moment it dropped to the ground Keito hurried to bandage his hand as good as possible.

“What happened?” Kento finally dared to ask, but before Ryosuke could answer Sou suddenly looked up panicked on the sound of his voice. As if struck by lightning he shot up and tried to get the knife back, but Kento stopped him. The boy started struggling right away, on which Kento had to hold down his arms to not get hit by a punch.

“LET GO, I NEED TO END THIS!”

“No Sou, you don’t! Please calm down, we can help you! Ren can’t hurt you if you trust us.”

Sou turned his head towards him with wide eyes. There were so many questions in the boy’s eyes, but they had to wait for later. “Can we treat your head for now? Please would you just listen to us?”

Sou hesitated for a moment, as did Keito. Ryosuke let out a sigh before he walked over to the couch chair in the corner and sat down, now all eyes resting on him.

“Kento, please shut the door and Keito would you mind treating his wound?”

They both did as they were told, even though Kento had to help Keito with treating Sou, because the boy wasn’t actually making it easy for them. It was just natural that he wouldn’t trust the Reapers so easily, but with Kento at his side he finally calmed down after a moment.

“I guess we can have a talk now?” Ryosuke asked, playing with his bandage as if it wasn’t actually a really bad looking fresh wound, but a long forgotten scar. Those parts of the boy’s behavior had remained the same after all, but it wasn’t something bad, at least not for Kento. As a members of the Titanium Triangle he couldn’t easily show any weakness, even though he wanted to scold him as badly as Keito for stopping Sou’s attack with his bare hand. It was a reckless action as Fuma would have done it as well. Losing his temper way too easily was also one of their similar points, because he could have definitely stopped Sou even without hurting him so badly, but he could scold him later.

“Sou, why didn’t you talk to anyone about what was going on?” Kento asked before the other two could bombard him with questions about the Storm Warriors.

“Who would have believed me? And way more important, who would have been able to help me?” Sou hissed at him as he crossed his arms to his chest and leant back on the chair on which they had made him sit down to treat his wound.

“I would have believed you! I told you so often to come to me when something is bothering you!”

“But you wouldn’t have been able to help me.”

“I am right here, helping you if you haven’t realized it!”

“Oh right, you did so much. You treated a small wound, congratulations. Maybe you should become a nurse then you might be of some use,” Sou replied mockingly, clapping his hands.

“Careful boy.”

While Keito stayed completely silent, Ryosuke shot the boy a dangerous glare and for a moment Sou seemed taken aback. Was it because he had thought that the head of the Reapers wouldn’t speak up for Kento? After all Sou didn’t know of what had happened between them in the past.

“I could have easily killed you earlier, but because Kento asked me to look out for you, because the Storm Warriors are the actual masterminds behind this, I will let it slip this time. But you should watch out how you talk to him, because I might change my mind when you don’t show him the gratitude he deserves for saving your butt.

This time Kento also looked at him perplex. The only one who seemed to have actually expected such a reaction was Keito.

“Okay, to get back to the topic, tell us about what the Storm Warriors told you!” Keito spoke next as no one else did, but Sou shifted impatiently obviously still not ready to talk.

“Sou, please. If you don’t talk to us we can’t help you,” Kento tried again and the boy finally let out a sigh.

“Guess I am dead meat anyway then I can at least make sure that they will get beaten before they can destroy the Triangle.”

“Destroy the Triangle?” Keito let out with a kind of disbelieving chuckle, because that was a huge goal for a new troop with such a few members.

“I didn’t get to know any details, the only one I really had contact to was Ren and he made his point extremely clear. I had to kill Ryosuke or I and my family would be the dead ones instead.”

“But why did he wait so long? You were with them for weeks, weren’t you?”

“Let’s say I didn’t make it easy for them and there were other candidates as well. We did small jobs for them over the last weeks, but we got less and less, not getting to know where the others had vanished to and it made it easier for them to scare us.”

It seemed quite hard for the boy to recall all the happenings of the last weeks, even though he had kept such a strong front in front of his family and Kento over the whole time.

Kento walked up to the chair and sat down on the armrest, stroking comforting over Sou’s hair. To his surprise the boy didn’t try to push him away, but put his head against his side.

“Guess we have to show them who rules over this area then,” Ryosuke let out in a calm voice before he got up. “But not today. They will wait for a move that is for sure. If they think I am dead they will try to storm the hideout, so we will not let them know anything for now.”

“But what about Sou’s family?” Kento asked worried on which Ryosuke gave him a brief smile.

“No worries, I didn’t say I will let them know I am alive either. I will stay here for the next days, hidden from all of them. I will make sure that just my most trusted men know of the situation, but to be sure that no information gets out, I have to keep Sou here as well.”

“What? I can’t stay here, what if they attack my family?” Sou asked in a shaking voice, but Ryosuke shook his head.

“Don’t worry they are not that stupid. With you gone and me gone, they don’t know at all what happened, so they will be stuck. All I need are a few days to organize an attack. As long as no one knows that you failed, no one will harm your family.”

Ryosuke’s words seemed really convincing to all of them, but Sou still felt uneasy.

“Don’t worry, I will look out for them over the next days and make sure that they are okay,” Kento promised and pulled the boy closer and squeezing his shoulder tightly on which the boy relaxed a little bit.

“Make sure that you stay out of trouble as well!” Ryosuke warned him as he got up and approached Kento. “Keito will get you out to the back door and make sure that no one will follow you. Hopefully no one has seen you, so that they can’t make a connection. Just in case, I will have some men patrol around your area to keep you and Sou’s family safe.”

Kento nodded, thankful for Ryosuke’s worries. He could have just let the boy take all the blame and maybe a few months ago he would have done so, telling them that he had nothing to win out of the situation, so why should he help them? But now everything was different, he was different. He didn’t even ask for any kind of payment and again Kento felt relieved that he had asked Ryosuke for help instead of Fuma.

Keito and Ryosuke left them alone for a moment and after Kento had made sure that Sou would be okay and didn’t plan on any other attack on Ryosuke to make up for his failed mission, he could finally leave without worrying for him too much.

“Make sure that you don’t turn your back on him,” Kento said kind of worried. “I told him to trust us, but you never know how much the fear towards the Storm Warriors could cloud his judgement.

Ryosuke just nodded with a comforting smile on which Kento followed Keito to the back door.

“Oh and Ryosuke,” Kento shouted after him as the latter moved towards the other direction and turned back to him with a curious look. “Thank you.”

Such an innocent and easy word, but it seemed to mean the world to Ryosuke as he cracked a wide smile. Kento wondered how everything between them would have went if he had met him now instead of a few months ago, but fact was that he couldn’t erase the past and even though he really liked how the boy had changed, the dark cloud surrounding them would never disappear.

***

Keito dropped him off directly in front of his house and promised to update him over the next days. For now everything was calm, but would it really be so easy? Stopping Sou from finishing the mission he was forced in to could have bigger consequences than they believed. But for now he was sure that Sou’s family was safe with Ryosuke’s men watching over them. And with Ryosuke’s new attitude Kento was also sure that Sou would be fine. Everything else they had to see in the upcoming days.

Kento sneaked inside the house as quiet as possible. Luckily Fuma was a deep sleeper, so even if he entered the bed room he would normally never wake up.

“You might want to tell me where you went?”

Kento flinched on the voice out of the dark and the next moment the light of a gas lamp flickered on the kitchen table, revealing Fuma sitting next to it.

“Why are you awake?” Kento asked, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible.

“Oh maybe because it is the second time in three nights already in which you sneaked out?”

“I’m not sneaking out! I just can’t sleep properly lately. But I didn’t want to disturb you, so I left for a walk as quiet as possible.

On that Fuma let out a mocking chuckle, his look unforgiving.

“The first time you were gone for a few minutes, fine I could have bought your poor lie, but did you even realize how many hours you were gone today? And just so you know, I could tell over the last two days that something was wrong, but I didn’t say anything, because I believed you would talk to me in the end when something bothered you.”

“Fuma, there is nothing-”

“Watch it, Kento! I let it slip once, but if you keep lying me in the face I might get angry,” Fuma warned him in a dangerous voice and Kento gulped, staying silent for a moment. It would have been too easy after all. Of course Fuma had to realize something, but what was he supposed to do? The warning was clear, but would he listen to his explanations or would he freak right away?

“I helped Sou,” Kento started careful. Not telling the whole story wasn’t actually lying, right?

“And how exactly did you help him?”

“He had some trouble with a member of a new troop around and I couldn’t just leave him alone.”

“Means I can now walk over to him and ask him about it and he will tell me exactly the same?”

Kento felt like someone had dropped a huge stone in his stomach on those words. Why couldn’t Fuma just leave it at this? Kento didn’t want him to be part of this mess and he should know that, but as always Fuma couldn’t just stand on the sideline.

“He...is not home at the moment.”

“Oh, how come?” Fuma’s mocking tone made Kento slowly angry. Sure Fuma had all the right of the world to be angry at him, but the way the conversation was going seemed like Fuma was scolding a kid which had disobeyed his parents’ rules.

“I left him with some people who can take better care of the whole situation. It’s not like I want to be part of any Underground fights again,” Kento tried to defuse the situation, but Fuma still wore a kind of dangerous expression while he played with a cup standing next to the gas lamp.

“And those people would be?”

“Fuma, come on! The situation is under control and I am out of it. I wasn’t even really part of it from the start. I just made sure he would get some help. Now it’s their responsibility.”

Not that Kento really thought that way, because he really needed to get more information from Keito about their plans, but that was nothing Fuma had to know.

“Why can’t you tell me the truth?”

“This is the truth!”

Fuma slammed his hand on the table with such a force that Kento jolted and the gas lamp almost fell from the table.

“Fuma…”

“I give you one more chance,” Fuma said without even facing him. Instead he kept playing with the cup in his hand and Kento didn’t know what to do anymore. He was the one at fault, so he should make up for it, but telling him the whole truth would make the situation even worse.

“I can handle this myself.”

His reply needed a moment to make sense to Fuma before he looked up at him in disbelieve. “What?”

“I said I can handle this myself. As I told you I actually already found a solution and everything is okay, so there is no need to continue this conversation.”

Silence followed Kento’s words and none of them moved.

“Good night,” Kento continued with a steady voice as he wanted to move towards the bed room, but he was stopped by the cup shattering on the wall right in front of his face. The shock was so big that he almost stumbled and fell, but the next moment Fuma was on his feet and with fast steps he walked up to Kento. Before he could even react the younger one had grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the wall.

“Is it so much fun lying to me?” He asked in a low voice, obviously not capable of raising his voice if he didn’t want it to break.

“Fun? I am trying to protect you,” Kento shot back at him, but he didn’t even try to get out of Fuma’s grip.

“Protect me? Don’t make me laugh.” When Fuma’s mocking tone was back Kento’s anger finally broke free and he shot the latter a death glare.

“So you protecting me is such a natural thing which I have to accept, but when I want to do the same for you then it’s such a big deal? Sorry to hurt your pride, but yes the high and mighty Fuma isn’t needed for all the fights outside there!”

Kento’s words were harsh and he was already shaking through his outburst, but he needed to finally let off some steam as well. Their calm talks normally ended with Fuma being all overprotective and careful with him again, saying yes to everything Kento told him, even though it was clear that he didn’t mean it. Having Fuma in such an angry state as well was maybe the best chance for both of them to finally come clear.

“Are we now on Nikaido and Kentaro level?” Fuma shot back at him.

“This is a different matter! Don’t compare us to them! And to be honest I can even get Kentaro’s point, I can understand why he lied to Nikaido before!”

“So you want to do the same? Then I guess I have to doubt everything you are saying from now on.”

“Don’t get so overdramatic,” Kento growled and rolled his eyes, but that made Fuma even angrier.

“Tell me who you met,” Fuma asked again, this time trying hard to keep calm, but his hands were already shaking. When Kento shook his head Fuma snapped and pulled him away from the wall just to slam him back into it so that Kento gasped for air.

“TELL ME!”

“I WON’T! AND NOW LET GO!” Of course Fuma wouldn’t listen. He had tried to explain that it was to protect Fuma, that the younger one wouldn’t be able to handle the situation, but as always Fuma wanted to know everything. He always wanted to be the one helping Kento and without knowing what was going on he couldn’t and it drove him insane.

They started struggling and for a moment it seemed like Kento could break free, but he got pushed back against the wall once more.

“I can’t help you when I don’t know what is going on,” Fuma said, once more trying to calm down the situation, but it had been the wrong thing to say, because the next moment Kento pushed him away with so much force that Fuma almost stumbled.

“I DON’T NEED YOUR HELP,” Kento shouted at him, his voice about to break, but he still kept glaring at the other one. Tears of rage now shining in his eyes. “AND YOU WOULD KNOW THAT IF YOU HAD LISTENED TO ONE FUCKING WORD I JUST SAID! BUT ALL YOU HEAR OUT OF MY MOUTH IS THAT I NEED TO BE RESCUED! BUT I DON’T! I HANDLED THIS FUCKED UP SITUATION MY OWN WAY AND IT WORKED! SO LEAVE ME ALONE!”

This time Kento stormed towards the door to get out for now, but after a moment of shock Fuma moved as well and grabbed Kento by the arm, pulling him back.

“LET GO,” Kento hissed at him when he turned to make him let go. He didn’t even see the movement, he just felt the pain. The burning feeling on his cheek after Fuma had slapped him. His eyes were filled with a mix of anger and hurt and it took a felt eternity for both of them to move again.

The first tears ran down Kento’s cheeks in silence before he tried to pull his wrist out of Fuma’s grip, but his effort was actually a joke and the next moment Fuma released him just to fling his arms around him. Hidden in his embrace Kento dropped to the floor, Fuma moving with him, holding him tight and listening to his loud sobs.

Kento didn’t reach out for him and Fuma didn’t try to say anything comforting or voice out an apology, for now every word would be the wrong one.

When Kento finally calmed down a little bit he took some deep breathes, trying desperately to stop his body from shaking. He didn’t try to free himself out of the other one’s hug and buried his face on the latter’s chest instead. Hadn’t he just made the same mistake Fuma made over the whole time? He was angry at Fuma for being too overprotective and wanting to help him wherever he could, even though he didn’t need help. But by keeping everything a secret to Fuma he had done exactly the same. Thinking that Fuma couldn’t handle the truth was hurting the younger one the same way as when Fuma thought the older one wouldn’t be able to talk about his past or get reminded of it. Both of them were moving around each other on pins and needles lately, trying so desperate to keep their new found happiness that they drifted apart without even realizing it. What they needed the most was each other’s’ trust and there was just one way to gain it back.

“I met with Ryosuke,” Kento let out without any outright and suddenly Fuma’s grip on him got so tight that it hurt Kento, but he wouldn’t complain. He had no right to.

“I thought so…” was all Fuma replied in a low voice. He wouldn’t need more explanation for now. The truth was out in the open and that was what mattered to both of them. The details could follow in a civil conversation after they had calmed down.

“I’m sorry,” Kento replied, but he felt how Fuma shook his head before he placed a kiss on his head.

“Don’t be. I just wanted you to tell me, that’s all. I bet you have completely logical reasons for that decision, but please don’t keep me out of those thoughts, okay?”

Kento nodded slowly against his chest. He had been extremely naive with his decision of keeping everything a secret. He should have trusted Fuma enough to know that he could handle his decision and if he had told him to stay out of it, he would have done it. But somehow he was too worried to see it, too afraid of the possibility that they would end up in another dangerous fight.

“I don’t want to lose you,” Kento whispered, but this time the latter didn’t answer. Instead he stroke comforting over his back and leant back on the wall. The silence that followed made them both finally calm down a little bit and at some point they definitely had to get up and go to bed. After all the room was ice cold and the floor not an option to fall asleep. But just for a while longer they wanted to stay like this, engraving this moment into their memory to prevent something similar from happening ever again. They both had learned their lesson about trust and they had to make sure to not lose their way again.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning came with an unpleasant first meeting between Keito and Fuma. Kento had made sure to tell Fuma everything without any outrights this time, but of course that didn’t really help brightening up the mood. They were both still extremely careful with their words and of course Keito realized the tension between them, through which he didn’t even bother to sit down, even though Kento had asked him to. Fuma hadn’t stood up from the chair to greet him and had actually not even said a word after Kento had told him who he was.

“Is Sou okay?” Kento finally asked, standing next to Keito close to the door.

“Yes, don’t worry. As we said he will have to stay with us for now until we prepared the attack. But his family is safe, we made sure of that.”

Kento nodded with a relieved expression, but of course he knew that it wouldn’t end here. If they really attacked the Storm Warriors then the challenge would start from that moment.

“Did Ryosuke say anything how long it will take?”

“He wants to be sure that the losses will be as few as possible, so he will take at least two more days for the preparations.”

On that Fuma actually let out a disbelieving chuckle on which both turned towards him, but Fuma lifted his hands in apology when Keito raised an eyebrow at him, even though his look told him that he wasn’t actually feeling sorry.

“Fuma, I told you that he has changed,” Kento tried to sooth him, but of course it wasn’t easy. Fuma had been part of the chaos with the Reapers as well after all and even though he didn’t know the whole story he wouldn’t easily trust Ryosuke.

“I don’t care for their losses as long as we are not dragged into their mess. Losing Ryosuke wouldn’t be a big loss after all.”

Even though he had whispered the last words to himself Keito had heard him and made a threatening step forward on which Fuma sat up straight, ready to jump up, but Kento stepped between them.

“We are not here to fight! The enemy is someone else and if you have forgotten this Fuma the enemy was someone else last time as well. Without the Reapers we wouldn’t have made it out alive the Fire Foxes’ hideout back then.”

Fuma just rolled his eyes on that and dropped back on the chair. There was no need for another fight and hopefully with Ryosuke handling the situation they could go back to a calm daily life once more. It just wouldn’t be fair if their happiness crumbled that easily.

“Please keep me updated about everything,” Kento asked of Keito and the latter promised him to do so before he stepped outside.

“Be careful that you don’t run into Ren or the other members in the next days. I doubt that they know about your involvement with us, but just to be sure. The same applies for your friend. He seems really short tempered, but the last we could use now is someone dragging their attention towards us even more.”

Kento just nodded, because Keito was absolutely right to worry about Fuma messing things up. If he wanted to accept it or not Fuma could act reckless, especially when he was angry.

“Guess your meeting with Ryosuke had some consequences,” Keito added with his eyes fixed on Kento’s cheek on which the younger one lifted one hand to cover the still remaining bruise. “I heard a lot about you from him and about what happened between you back then.”

Kento blinked at him in confusion, because he wasn’t actually sure if he should be surprised or not. The change in Ryosuke’s attitude couldn’t have come out of nowhere.

“Seems like he has finally found someone he can open up to,” Kento replied with a smile and for the first time Keito also smiled at him. Of course after all he had heard from Ryosuke it was just natural that he was careful around Kento, but somehow it didn’t bother him at all. It wasn’t something that made him feel uneasy, maybe because with Keito knowing about everything he had finally someone he could act completely natural with.

“I’ll come back latest tomorrow morning,” Keito said before he left and Kento thanked him once more. When he stepped inside he found Fuma already dressed with his jacket and scarf.

“You think it is a good idea to go to work?”

No answer.

Kento stepped out of the way when Fuma got into his shoes, ready to leave. This mess would need more time to get fixed than Kento wanted to admit, but he had to accept that he had caused everything himself, so he couldn’t get angry at Fuma. Lost in his thoughts he stared to the ground, waiting for the door to open and close again and it opened, but then there were suddenly hands on his neck, pulling him forward and Fuma placed a kiss on his forehead before he turned away again.

“See you in the evening. Don’t do anything reckless,” Fuma said already out the door and shut it without waiting for an answer.

Kento cracked a small, yet bitter smile after he remained alone. Yes he had messed them both up pretty much, but seeing how Fuma was ready to fight for them made him believe as well that they could fix things.

***

Fuma couldn’t deny that he was never even once that angry in his life. Even though angry wasn’t maybe the right word, more like extremely hurt and disappointed. Work gave him the distraction he needed, but on his way back he took longer than needed, taking a walk through some streets that weren’t even on his way home, just to get some distraction.

That there were two people involved in this fight was something he was aware of. He had put a lot of pressure on Kento without even noticing it, which had resulted in the boy slowly drifting away from him and taking actions without telling him. A few months ago he would have never done something like this, but that was actually what Fuma had to finally admit. Kento wasn’t the same anymore. He was stronger and more independent than when he had arrived at the fight club, scared and beaten by life. But now Fuma was the scared one, if he wanted to admit it or not. The fear of not being able to hold on to their happiness was scaring him a lot. What if he was the weak one this time?

When Fuma turned around another corner he finally stopped, realizing that he was about to enter the Reapers territory and coming across any Reapers or Storm Warrior members was the last he needed. He spotted two boys at the next corner, obviously waiting for someone. It was already dark, but he could still see their faces and spot their bright hair colors. They waved at someone who came into sight the next moment. A boy with black hair, but he had his back turned to Fuma so he couldn’t see his face. They started talking, but they were still too far away to hear them, so Fuma turned away and kept walking before he could end up in any kind of trouble.

The direct walk home seemed way longer than usual and he paused when he stood in front of their house, not really sure if he should enter, but what else should he do? It wasn’t like he had somewhere else to go and if he was honest to himself he also didn’t want to go somewhere else. Okay they had had a fight, and? They all had fights in the fight club and they all found back together. So they should be able to do so as well.

“Fuma?”

On Kento’s voice the younger one finally got out of his thoughts and looked up at Kento who stood in the open door with a worried look.

“You are late. Is everything okay?” Kento asked and the way he obviously tried to make his words sound as careful as possible almost hurt Fuma. Of course he had worried. He wanted to kick himself for not realizing that Kento was waiting for him.

“Everything is fine, sorry to make you wait,” Fuma answered in a calm voice before Kento stepped back inside to let Fuma enter. In silence he got out of his shoes and coat, which was to his surprise taken from his shoulders from Kento as he usually did it.

When Fuma looked at him over the shoulder Kento hesitated for a brief moment, but Fuma didn’t complain and so he finally took the coat off.

Seeing how Kento put it over carefully to the side and moved towards the kitchen corner with careful steps Fuma’s heart felt heavy. Every move he usually proceeded every day, making food or putting a cup on the table seemed forced as if he feared that a wrong move could break everything between them to pieces. The whole picture in front of Fuma seemed so wrong to him and before Kento could continue to prepare their dinner Fuma took a few big steps inside the room and pulled Kento away from the kitchen corner into his embrace.

Kento let out a surprised gasp, but didn’t struggle. Instead he waited for Fuma to say something.

“Please don’t do this,” Fuma said with more hurt in his voice than he thought he felt.

“Don’t do what?”

“Please Kento, you know what I mean. We both screwed up, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t fix things again and seeing how you drown into your guilt, which I actually should share with you hurts me.”

Instead of answering, Kento relaxed in his arms and dared to move his arms to Fuma’s back in response on which Fuma let out a long breath and rested his head on the other one’s shoulder.

“We can fix this, right?” Kento asked with a shaking voice on which Fuma tighten his grip right away.

“Of course we can. There is nothing in the world which can rip us apart,” Fuma said and he meant every word, because he wanted to fight for them. There was no way that one obstacle would bring them to their limits already. They had just bottled up everything for too long, releasing it at the worst timing possible.

Kento tried to step back the next moment and Fuma loosened his grip on him, but still held him in his arms, but far enough so that they could look at each other. With shaking fingers Kento moved a hand to Fuma’s cheek and the latter closed his hand on the touch.

“I’m so sorry for lying to you, Fuma. I should have known better. You are the strong one of us two, so I should have put my trust in you instead of acting behind your back,” Kento apologized, with his voice obviously about to break and it made it actually hard for the younger one to find his own voice.

“And I’m sorry for constricting your freedom like this, without even realizing how strong you have become on your own and what weight you were suddenly able to carry by yourself.”

“Guess we both learned something new like this,” Kento said with a little bit more confidence in his voice, which made Fuma relax and he finally dared to lift a hand towards Kento’s face as well. When the boy didn’t make any move to resist Fuma pulled him closer with his other hand around his back and gave him a careful, but still passionate kiss. When Kento replied to it right away and moved both his arms around Fuma’s neck, the younger one dared to deepen it, the actual need now visible in both their body movements. But for this night they would leave it as this. It was the first step in the right direction, but this time they had to watch each other carefully to not lose the way again.

***

They had gone to bed without having another talk and it had been the most relaxing feeling for both to rest in each other’s arms. They were sure that things would eventually just get back on their own if they kept taking care of each other.

Both jolted on a sudden loud knock on the door. It was still in the middle of the night and they sat up in shock, both remaining silent for a moment before it knocked once more.

“KENTO, PLEASE OPEN.”

Kento needed less than a few seconds to be on his feet and on his way to the door. When he ripped the door open without any hesitation his eyes grew wide in shock.

“What happened?” Fuma asked as he appeared right behind Kento, who was out of words for a moment. Sou was standing in front of them. Blood dropping from his temple and he held his arm, which seemed badly hurt.

“I...am not sure. They just- they came without a warning. We weren’t prepared and suddenly there were so many people. Ryosuke shouted at me to run and so I did.”

Sou’s eyes were filled with fear and he was also bitterly shaking. Finally snapping out of it Kento pulled him inside the house, taking a last look around if anyone had followed him.

“Fuma, could you please get some water and bandages?”

Fuma did as he was told without another question while Kento helped Sou sit down.

“Kento, I’m sorry. I- I didn’t want this to happen-”  
“Shhh, everything is alright. Don’t worry, okay? This is not your fault,” Kento soothed him as Sou started crying now that the shock was slowly resolving.

“But what will happen now? I have to protect my family.”

“Ryosuke had his men with them, so don’t worry. As soon as they get to know about their attack, they will make sure to bring them somewhere safe.”

Sou still didn’t seem convinced, but for now he let Kento tread his wounds. But as much as Kento wanted to concentrate he felt restless and that was when Fuma finally moved and grabbed his coat.

“What are you doing?” Kento asked worried and Sou also looked at him questioning.

“I will take a look.”

“Are you crazy? They will kill you,” Sou let out with a shocked expression, but Kento remained calm. Fuma had read the worry in his eyes, so he couldn’t actually blame him for taking action.

“Do you trust me?” Fuma asked, his eyes locked with Kento’s and slowly the older one nodded.

“Please be careful. Don’t do anything reckless.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

Fuma gave him a confident smile before he dashed out the door and Sou looked after him with a disbelieving look.

“How can you let him go after what I just told you?” Sous asked perplex, but Kento kept treating his wound and gave him a brief smile.

“I trust him that is why. I know that he won’t jump in there and try to play hero. But we can’t just stay away and pretend that we didn’t know about it. He will be fine, don’t worry.”

“Kento?” Sou asked carefully after Kento was done with his wounds and put everything back in place.

“Mh?” Kento tilted his head and waited for the boy to continue, but his troubled expression made him sit down next to him at the table. “What is it?”

“I just wondered...you know Ryosuke seemed to know you from before, right?” It was obvious that the boy wasn’t sure if he was allowed to ask any questions about it or not, but Kento just cracked a bitter smile, but wasn’t offended by the question.

“Yes we actually went to some huge trouble together.”

“Had it something to do with the Fire Foxes?”

“You heard about it?”

“Just rumors, but I wouldn’t have thought that someone like you was involved in that.”

“Trust me I would have liked to stay out of it as well, but we protected some precious friends back then, so there was no way we would just sit back and watch.”

Sou nodded, looking kind of impressed by Kento’s decision. After all, the boy just knew Kento’s calm and caring side until now and Kento had hoped to be able to spare the boy to get involved with the Underground in the first place. It was just a coincidence that they had taken Sou, it could have been any boy around the area which was easy to target. But now they had to take care of him and make sure that he and his family could go back to a normal life.

When they heard people approaching outside they both froze, because Fuma could have made it to the hideout by now, but definitely not the whole way back. Kento put his pointer finger to his lips signaling him to stay silent as he walked over to the window, spying carefully behind the curtain.

“What the…?”

Without giving Sou an explanation he dashed to the door and when he opened it Fuma entered first with a weird mix of emotions on his face and who could blame him. Kento was more than surprised that he had made the decision to bring them here in the first place.

“I found them on my way to the hideout. They were completely outnumbered and they made them run before they could get killed.”

Kento heard Fuma’s explanation, but his eyes were on Keito or more like on Ryosuke who seemed barely conscious. Fuma helped him carry Ryosuke inside the house and Kento finally snapped out of it and told them to move him to the bedroom so that he could lie down.

“Keito, you need to get out of the way,” Kento said when it was clear that the other one seemed more than unwilling to leave Ryosuke’s side, but Kento needed space to treat him and it had to happen fast, because he saw already two gun wounds on his upper body. “Fuma, could you treat Keito’s wounds?”

“That can wait for later,” Keito said right away, but that was when Kento finally lost his calm and grabbed him by the sleeve to drag him up to his feet.

“Don’t be so stubborn. No one will gain anything if you die while I save him. If you haven’t realized it, you are losing a lot of blood as well,” Kento scolded him, pointing at a knife wound on his stomach and the next moment Fuma pushed the boy out the room and shouted at Sou to help him. Keito followed Fuma’s instruction reluctantly, but Kento could consider his feelings later. Of course he knew how he felt, but he wouldn’t be of any help for now, so it was better if he stayed away.

Kento prepared everything to get the bullets out of Ryosuke’s body for now and luckily he had received some tools from Kamenashi and Miyata when they had left the fight club. He had put a gas lamp next to them and even though it wasn’t giving him the light he actually needed, it was better than nothing. He couldn’t really compare himself to a real doctor, but he had had a lot of time over the last months and he had used it to read a lot about treatments, so at least the theory part was already completed in most basic treatments, but now he felt how his hands started trembling when he remember how they had tried to rescue Kentaro and had almost failed.

“What’s with that worried look?”

On the sound of Ryosuke’s weak voice he looked up at him and even though Ryosuke wanted to show him one of his carefree smiles it was swallowed by a painful cough and some blood ran down from the corner of his mouth. “It’s not like you have any responsibility to rescue me. If you fail it won’t matter.”

Kento shot him an angry glare on his words, because that was what he hated the most about Ryosuke. “Taking your life as if it is worth nothing should be part of your past.”

“Oh and why is that? You care for it now?”

“No, but Keito does and if you tell me that you don’t care for him then you are lying to yourself.”

That finally made Ryosuke shut up, not that he wasn’t forced to stay silent through the pain as well, but his eyes suddenly showed guilt.

“So could you just try and keep fighting for both of your sakes?” Kento asked in an annoyed tone while he prepared an injection with which the pain would at least get a little bit less.

“Whatever,” Ryosuke responded and looked away, but Kento could see on his face that he had gotten his point and wouldn’t say something reckless again. But for now he had to hurry, because as strong Ryosuke was, his wounds were worse than he let show.

Kento brought the injection down and proceeded to cut Ryosuke’s shirt open, revealing a shot wound on the shoulder and on his lower abdomen.

“I will treat the lower wound first. It will hurt more, but the wound seems deeper and the loss of blood could easily kill you.”

Ryosuke didn’t say anything, but just closed his eyes and tried hard to keep his breathing pace steady so that his coughing wouldn’t disturb Kento’s work.

With an iodine pad Kento cleaned the wound and Ryosuke let out a groan, but kept his eyes closed.

“Are you ready?” Kento asked when he took the needed tools in his hand and Ryosuke just nodded, but Kento didn’t miss how he clenched his hands into the sheets already.

Carefully and with steady hands Kento moved the grasping forceps into the wound and after a few centimeters Ryosuke jolted on which Kento had to press his hips down so that he wouldn’t hurt him even more. To be sure that he could work properly he sat down on Ryosuke’s legs before he moved the tool again.

“Just a bit more,” Kento said in a soothing tone when Ryosuke escaped another groan, but then Kento finally got a grip on the bullet and pulled it out carefully. Without losing any time he started sewing the wound and continued with the wound on the shoulder right away, which wasn’t luckily as bad as the other one.

When he was done he wiped the few sweat drops from his forehead before he dropped down next to Ryosuke, who seemed to finally relax with the pain killers showing effect.

“Hey, everything alright?” Fuma asked as he stepped into the room and Kento nodded with a brief smile.

“At least for now, but I am not sure if he will actually recover without problems. He has lost a lot of blood and needs to rest a lot before I can actually say if he will be fine.”

“Hey, you did all you could,” Fuma said when he sat on his knees next to him and gave him a kiss on the hair. “Can I ask you a last favor for today? Keito’s wound needs to be sewed, but I guess that is something you should take care of.”

“Yes if he doesn’t want his arm suddenly sewed to his stomach than yes,” Kento replied with a teasing smile on which Fuma hit him on the back of his head.

“Hey, I’m not that bad.”

“But we still shouldn’t take the risk, right?”

Fuma just shook his head, but helped Kento to his feet and urged him to help Keito while he and Sou prepared some futons so that they all had a place to sleep for the night. Someone actually had to be on guard, but they could at least switch shifts. They couldn’t be sure if anyone would find them sooner or later, so they had to be prepared.


	6. Chapter 6

“Did he finally fall asleep?” Fuma asked when Kento stepped out the bed room, where he had allowed Keito in as well after he was done with Ryosuke’s treatment, but to his surprise Sou had offered to sleep in their room as well, leaving the space in front of the kitchen corner for two futons for Fuma and Kento.

Kento had taken another look at Ryosuke’s wound and had ended up waiting until Sou had finally fallen asleep as well. Keito and Ryosuke had been forced to sleep through the painkillers Kento had given them, so for now he could rest assure that they were fine, even though he still worried a lot about Ryosuke’s condition, because it was everything else than stable.

“Yes and I really hope that we won’t get discovered until tomorrow.”

“Why until tomorrow?”

“Because I hope that we can move Ryosuke by then,” Kento replied, sitting down on Fuma’s Futon. It was actually already morning, but they all were in a desperate need of sleep and Fuma couldn’t even think of going to work like nothing was going on. They didn’t know if someone had seen him with Ryosuke and Keito so walking around that much was too dangerous anyways.

“Why do you want to move him?”

“They will find us right away if we stay here.”

“So you want Keito to bring him somewhere else?”

Kento stayed silent on that for a moment, playing with the covers of the futon and that was when Fuma’s look darkened.

“You want to go with him?” It wasn’t actually a question, because he had seen the answer on Kento’s face before even asking.

“If I let them leave like this Ryosuke will die and if we stay here they will find us and kill us all,” Kento replied in a low voice, knowing that he had the better arguments, but that wouldn’t make it any easier.

“What about Sou?”

“I don’t know to be honest. I want to send him away with his family. The question is just if he will listen without making a scene.”

Fuma just nodded as he shifted to move under the covers, because even though they were using the stove non-stop since Ryosuke and the others had come, the house wouldn’t warm up completely. Kento made a move to slide away to lie on his own futon, but Fuma pulled on his wrist and lifted his blanket on which Kento cracked a small smile before he sneaked under his blanket.

“Guess I have no other choice than trusting you,” Fuma let out before he placed a kiss on Kento’s hair while the latter buried his face on the latter’s chest.

“I’m sorry,” Kento let out, because he knew how hard it was for Fuma to accept his decision like this without even trying to pick a fight. Risking their new found calm life was one thing, but risking it for Ryosuke was something Fuma couldn’t easily accept and Kento couldn’t even blame him. “We will return here! I promise I will do everything necessary to finally get us a calm and happy life. But I can’t turn away when other people need help.”

“You don’t have to justify yourself. This is who you are and I love you for that,” Fuma said honestly as he backed off just enough to be able to look at the other one. “As long as you tell me about what you are up to I am following to the end of the world, but if you sneak away than I will lose sight of you.”

Kento smiled on his words and he felt extremely happy that he had decided to tell Fuma directly about his plans of treating Ryosuke’s wounds until he was fine again. After all he knew that Fuma would understand him, even though he didn’t like the idea.

“Let’s sleep for now, okay?” Fuma suggested before he grabbed Kento by the chin and gave him a small peck on the lips.

They had a lot to worry about from now on, but they would face it as they had faced all their difficulties in the Underground before, together!

***

Ryosuke didn’t need to open his eyes to realize that he was being looked at and even though he wanted to ignore it he finally forced his mind to work enough to say something.

“Why aren’t you sleeping?” No response. Of course without him opening his eyes the other one could still pretend to be asleep, but he knew him better by now. “Keito, sleep!”

This time Ryosuke hit with his arm to the side, hitting Keito somewhere on the side and the latter finally let out a small chuckle.

“Keep your voice down or you will wake up Sou,” Keito scolded him in a low voice on which Ryosuke cracked one eye open to find the boy lying on his right, completely curled up in his futon. Then he turned to his left and as excepted Keito seemed awake for some time already, looking at him as if he feared that he could vanish every second now.

“How long did I sleep?”

“Not sure, because I slept until about an hour ago as well, but I heard Kento and Fuma moving around in the other room already, so I guess we slept the whole day, because it is dark already again.”

Ryosuke just turned his head back and looked at the ceiling in silence until Keito took his hand in his.

“I know that look. Is it still troubling you that much?”

“That’s a question you should ask him, not me. I have no right to feel bad in any way. I am the one who took advantage of him and the whole situation.”

“But it’s not like you are proud of what you have done.”

“It still won’t change anything,” Ryosuke replied with a sigh and closed his eyes once more. It hadn’t been easy for him to take over the Reapers and it had been even harder to stay sane at that time. Playing around and finding out about his limits as one of the Titanium Triangle leaders was something he had suddenly found a huge liking in back then, but thinking back now he felt like the biggest idiot.

“Maybe it will when you finally dare to tell him?” Keito interrupted his thoughts, but it was already hard for Ryosuke to keep the conversation up. The painkillers weren’t showing that much effect anymore and he still felt extremely dizzy and weak. When he didn’t open his eyes and didn’t answer Keito lifted their entwined hands and kissed his knuckles on which Ryosuke’s formed a brief smile. “Think about it, okay? We had this talk before. You can talk to me about everything and you know that, but this is something he deserves to know way more than me.”

With the next movement Keito was up on his knees and freed his hand before he dropped a careful kiss on Ryosuke’s forehead. “I’ll ask Kento for more painkillers and to take a look at your wound, okay?”

Ryosuke just nodded and when Keito slid the door shut behind him he let out a long breath. He knew that Keito was right, but it was hard to admit and even harder to actually dare and make the next step into the right direction. But now he couldn’t deny that he had a huge depth towards Kento for saving his life. It wouldn’t change the past and he didn’t even once think about asking for forgiveness. It was more an egoistic matter of finally trying to end one chapter of his life and maybe he could also help Kento to move on as well.

***

As expected Ryosuke’s condition wasn’t getting any better over the next night and as their safest choice Fuma and Kento decided to go out and get more medication, bandages and also food and water. Sou and Keito wanted to help, but they both refused right away. With members of the Storm Warriors knowing their faces it was way too dangerous for them to move around.

Sou begged Kento to check up on his family, but they feared that if they got close to them and got seen that their cover could get blown easier.

As if nothing was going on they went over the main street, greeting the market people. Fuma assuring everyone that he wasn’t slacking off at work and that he just wasn’t feeling that well, so that he had taken off.

“Do we have everything?” Kento asked after a felt eternity of buying everything and Fuma took a look into their bags and back on the list before he nodded.

“Yes that should be all for now.”

They were luckily that it was getting dark already so that there weren’t too many people outside. But the darkness was also their enemy’s territory. Kento admitted that Ryosuke needed at least one more day to be able to get even lifted up from the bed without causing major damage to his wound, so he would treat his wounds over the next night as good as possible and then they could try to move to a safer place. Fuma had already suggested bringing them to Kitayama or Kamenashi, but of course both boys had refused right away. For that move their pride was still too high. What had actually surprised them was that Sou wanted to stick with them for some time longer. Of course the boy wanted to get back to his family, but he was aware of the risk and he didn’t want to bring them any more trouble.

Without a warning Kento pushed Fuma around the next corner with such a force that the boy almost dropped their bags, but when he turned around ready to scold him, Kento put his finger up to his own lips, shaking his head. Following Kento’s look back around the corner he saw a few people approaching. There was no face he recognized, but Kento seemed to. When they came so close that they could already hear their voices, they started panicking. Even though Kento had made sure that they wouldn’t see them right away they had ended up in an alley with a dead end.

“Don’t get so excited already, the meeting won’t take place before January,” one of them was heard.

“Mugen are still up in the North, but they started sending their first members down. Domoto and the rest will follow soon,” another one said, kind of excited.

Kento held his breath when they were almost next to them, but then Fuma suddenly pushed him against the wall and his elbow landed next to him on the wall, blocking his few out of the alley. The younger one stepped so close that Kento felt a little bit cornered all of a sudden, but then he realized what he was doing when he moved his body a little bit to the side so that Kento was almost completely hidden from anyone who would look inside the alley.

“I hope we will be part of that meeting. Ren is all hyper because of it, but of course there is no question that he will be part of it.”

“Even if we can’t go, we will be part of everything that follows so no reason to worry.”

The voices were right next to them now on which Fuma and Kento stared at each other in high alert, but then the boys started laughing and talking again, while slowly moving on and when their voices weren’t heard anymore Fuma let out a relieved sigh.

“Guess next time I should go alone,” Fuma said when he finally stepped back, but Kento shook his head right away.

“As if I would let you run around on your own with them around. You don’t even know their faces.”

“You just know Ren and a few of the guys like them,” Fuma said and pointed out the alley. “It’s not like those are the only members.”

“Let’s just hope that we won’t run into any of them as soon as we are gone tomorrow,” Kento said before he stepped out the alley with a careful look around.

Fuma still wasn’t fond of the hiding idea, but maybe it was really better to get away for now and see how things would go. With the Reapers gone, the Storm Warriors could take their place, but for that the Fire Foxes and Exposers had to agree and that wouldn’t happen without a meeting and somehow Fuma was already sure that after their cowardly attack on the Reapers that they wouldn’t get to an agreement, which made them actually even more dangerous. If their goal wasn’t a position inside the Triangle what were they aiming for then?

***

After hearing of the incident with the Storm Warriors, Ryosuke had tried to convince everyone that he was well enough to get somewhere else with Keito, but of course Kento had refused right away, knowing that he tried to play tough to not drag him and Fuma into the mess even more.

“I told you to not get up!” Kento scolded Ryosuke as he hadn’t spent him any attention for a while when he prepared some food with Sou, while Keito had finally convinced Fuma to let him go outside and search with him for a safe hideout. Of course Kento and also Ryosuke had tried to reason with them, but in the end they had just let them go. It was late already and in the dark they wouldn’t be able to recognize Keito easily. With Keito still hurt Kento had warned them both to not take any risk and come back if they stumbled accidently over some Storm Warrior members.

“Since when am I listening to what you are saying?” Ryosuke asked while he stepped out the room with his hand still on the doorframe. It was obvious that he wouldn’t be able to walk without getting stabilized, but Kento couldn’t be as angry at him as he wanted, after all lying around and doing nothing wasn’t really what Ryosuke was good at.

Kento rolled his eyes, but helped Ryosuke moving over to the table, so that he could sit down on one of the chairs.

“Don’t overdo it, okay? As soon as it hurts too much you tell me!” Kento’s tone didn’t leave any space for refusal and Ryosuke just nodded.

Even though Kento went back to help Sou with the food he still shot Ryosuke some side glances. He wasn’t sure if the latter wasn’t realizing how bad his condition was or if he really tried to hide his pain to not worry everyone too much. After all he was the leader of the Reapers or more like had been, but either way showing any kind of weakness wasn’t his style.

“Here, you need to eat something. You refused the two last meals already,” Kento said as he put a bowl of rice in front of Ryosuke. “Don’t even try to say no!”

Ryosuke hadn’t even opened his mouth, but one look at Kento had been enough for the younger one to guess his answer.

With a sigh Ryosuke took the bowl and started eating, while Kento told Sou to also eat and take a rest after that, even though his wounds hadn’t been as bad as Keito’s or Ryosuke’s, but he still needed to recover.

“Ryosuke,” Kento started scolding as the other one put the bowl down to the table again after not even eating half of it.

“Come on I tried, okay?”

It wouldn’t make sense to force him to eat so for now Kento gave up, but the fact that they boy still didn’t seem hungry even though he looked like a ghost already was worrying him extremely. But before he could even try to convince him to eat more the door opened and Fuma and Keito stepped inside, luckily unharmed.

“Everything alright?” Kento asked and Fuma nodded, while Keito’s look fell on Ryosuke.

“Did you allow him to get up?” Keito asked Kento, who wasn’t sure what to answer on that, but that was all Keito needed to walk over to Ryosuke and hit him against the back of his head with a scolding look.

“What the fuck was that for?” Ryosuke complained, but Keito’s look was still burning him so he looked away with a growl.

“Don’t give me that shit, Ryosuke! I know how much you hate it to sit around and do nothing, but when Kento tells you that you need to rest more than do it for god’s sake.”

“I am resting or do you see me running around, jumping flic-flacs?”

It was Sou whom finally escaped a chuckle on that and Kento cracked a smile as well. Fuma just shook his head before he moved over to the kitchen corner. Even while arguing those two weren’t really what someone could refer to as scary and once more Kento was happy about Ryosuke having Keito by his side.

Loud voices outside made them all freeze the next moment and Kento was the first one to dash over to the window to take a careful look through the curtains.

“Shit, you have to be kidding me.”

“What is going on?” Fuma asked as he joined him and gasped as he saw how a large number of Storm Warrior members was walking down the street, a few of them randomly entering buildings, breaking doors open and fighting those who tried to stop them.

“They are searching for us,” Keito hissed as he looked outside as well. “And they will find us in no time like this.”

“What do we do?” Sou asked panicked.

“We move, now!” Ryosuke said before anyone could come up with something and even though they would have liked to find another way they knew there was none. Fuma and Kento rushed through the house to get all the stuff together they needed and packed two bags with medication and provisions. Keito helped Ryosuke up and even though it was obviously painful for him to move around he tried his best to not let it show too much.

“We’ll get out the window of the bedroom. They will see us right away if we try to escape through the door.”

Everyone followed Kento and he looked out the window carefully, luckily finding no one on the back side of the building. He jumped out first, then Fuma followed and with Keito and Sou still inside they all helped Ryosuke down and as much as the latter tried to move on his own, he almost collapsed into Fuma’s arms when he made it out the window.

Keito told Sou to go next, but then there was an impact on the door and they all froze.

“Hurry, come on!” Kento whispered, but the next impact broke the door open and before they could even move two men had stormed into the bedroom.

“WE FOUND THEM!” One of them shouted while the other one jumped at Keito right away, who kicked his attacker back, so that he landed on the other one and they both fell.

“GO!” Keito shouted towards the others, while two more people entered the room and the two from before were on their feet again as well.

“Keito, come on jump!” Ryosuke shouted up at him, but even if he wanted to, there was no time. They would send people around the house in no time and then they would all get captured.

In a last attempt of somehow getting Sou out of the situation Keito tried to push him out the window, but their attackers were faster and grabbed both of them, pulling them back inside the room.

“KEITO!” Ryosuke started struggling against Fuma’s grip, but the latter was already dragging him away.

“RUN YOU IDIOT!” Keito shouted back at him, before he turned and tried to delay their opponents as much as possible. Sou tried his best as well, even though it was clear already that he had no chance against them. But that didn’t mean that he would go down without a fight.

“Ryosuke, please move,” Kento begged him as he pushed him back while Fuma had to almost carry him to make him move.

“No, I won’t leave him behind,” Ryosuke shot back, even though he wouldn’t be able to help him anyways and even if Fuma went back there were too many opponents to win against.

“There they are!” On the sound of other members coming running from the backside of a few buildings away Fuma cursed and before anyone could stop him he turned Ryosuke around and gave him a blow on the neck. The effect was as he had hoped and Ryosuke fell over in his arms. Fuma lifted him up over his shoulder and shouted at Kento to follow him as he dashed away through the small alleys between the buildings.

Kento shot a last glance back at their house, but he couldn’t see Sou and Keito between all the shouting people anymore, but as long as they didn’t get Ryosuke there was a high chance of them being safe for now or at least a chance of surviving, because if they didn’t spill out Ryosuke’s hideout then there was also a high chance of them getting forced to talk. But there was nothing he could do for now and he finally dashed after Fuma who lead the way through the streets.

Ryosuke would be more than furious when he would wake up, but they could deal with that problem later, for now they had to survive somehow.


	7. Chapter 7

“Is this the place you and Keito looked for?”

“No, this is completely the opposite direction. We walked around here as well, but we decided for some other hideout, but now that they got him it would be too dangerous to choose the place we chose together,” Fuma explained as they entered one of the old buildings in one of the unrestored quarters about 30 minutes away from their neighborhood.

They tried to get away as far as possible, but even though Fuma would have still been able to carry Ryosuke, Kento was worried for Ryosuke’s condition and they finally stopped.

They chose a random building and went up into the highest floor and luckily they found at least one old mattress they could use for Ryosuke.

“Where are you going?” Kento asked panicked as Fuma went towards the door again after dropping Ryosuke off.

“I will make sure that their way up the stairs won’t be easy even if they find us.”

“Be careful.”

Fuma just nodded and vanished down the staircase and even though Kento didn’t feel good at all to have Fuma away from him even though he was still in the same building he finally took his medical supplies out of the bags to treat Ryosuke’s wounds which have taken a lot of damage through their rushed escape. But as much as he tried to stay concentrated his thoughts drifted off to Sou the most. He felt more than guilty for leaving him behind, but as long as they didn’t get Ryosuke there was still hope that they would survive. On the other hand he was more than afraid of what they could do to both to get information out of them.

With a sigh he moved to get the equipment to fix the seams which got damaged on Ryosuke’s lower stomach wound, but when he wanted to clean the wound Ryosuke’s hand on his wrist stopped him and with a guilty look Kento turned his head towards him and as expected a death glare hit him.

“Ryosuke, I have to treat your wound or-”

“I don’t care!” Ryosuke shot back right away and Kento bit his lip. Seeing the accusation in Ryosuke’s eyes he didn’t know what to say to make him snap out of it. “How could you?”

Kento needed a moment to process the question and especially the hurt and the unforgiveness in his voice.

“What was I supposed to do? If they got you we would all be dead now,” Kento replied carefully, but Ryosuke’s look didn’t soften.

“We could have gotten out altogether. If we-”

“No, Ryosuke! You know that we couldn’t have made it,” Kento interrupted him firmly. Denying the truth would just make everything worse. “Even Fuma couldn’t have fought all of them. And Keito told us to leave…”

Suddenly Ryosuke’s grip on Kento’s wrist got tighter and the younger one’s look turned even more apologizing, but as cruel as reality was, they all had to accept it.

“Can I please treat you now? If we don’t stop the bleeding-”

“Why would I want to survive?”

“What?” Kento was completely startled by the sudden pain in his voice. Ryosuke let go of his wrist and stared towards the ceiling with empty eyes.

“I lost everything. The Reapers are gone and because of me Keito is in danger as well. If I’d be gone-”

“Stop!” Kento didn’t raise his voice, but he shook his head nonstop. Ryosuke spared him a brief side glance before he continued as if he hadn’t said anything.

“If I die everything is over. There is no reason for more fighting. As long as Kamenashi and Kitayama come to an agreement with them the balance of the Titanium Triangle should be no problem. Your little friends in the fight clubs should also be fine.”

“I said stop it,” Kento tried again, but once more Ryosuke ignored him and failed in noticing how Kento’s look darkened on every word and how he clenched his fists into the sheets.

“You and Fuma can also go back to a normal life. Isn’t it amazing what a good effect the erasing of my existence would have?”

Ryosuke laughed on his own words, his walls up again with his typical carefree smile and distant attitude. For him it was clear that he had lost everything and that there was nothing left to do, but as always he forgot that not everyone would accept his decision. He was still smiling when Kento suddenly grabbed him by the collar and the harsh slap he received next made his smile slowly resolve. He stared at Kento in disbelieve who was glaring at him with eyes filled with so much anger as he had never seen it before.

“You are such an ignorant asshole, you know that?” Kento started and Ryosuke didn’t even know how to react, so he just remained silent while Kento’s hands started shaking, but instead of releasing him he pulled him up more on the collar. “Because of you I went through hell, but I did it to safe the people I love! And here you are, finally finding someone worth fighting for! You the high and mighty Ryosuke finally letting someone fix your emotional chaos and then when that person sacrifices himself to safe you, what are you doing? You are running away!”

This time Ryosuke was about to shot something back, but Kento shook him once more on the collar harshly, signaling him that it wasn’t his turn to speak and again Ryosuke stayed silent.

“Dying will solve everything? Yes maybe your guilt and all your regrets, but that is all. You want to go back to your arrogant self which doesn’t care for anyone else than yourself? But let me tell you that you condemned a lot of people to death through that.”

This time Ryosuke’s eyes grew wide before the guilt finally replaced his cold look again.

“If you die the Storm Warriors will claim their position in the Triangle with or without the other troops approving. And while Sou and Keito are definitely going through hell right now, there is still hope for them as long as we are here, able to find a way to rescue them. But as soon as they find out that you are dead they won’t need them anymore. Giving up on yourself will kill Keito as well. So would you finally snap out of it and let me treat you?”

Without waiting for an answer Kento shoved Ryosuke back onto the mattress and even though he tried to control his anger and be careful he brought the needle down so harsh the first time that Ryosuke jolted. The older one didn’t say anything for a while, his eyes still set on the ceiling while Kento continued taking care of his wound on the shoulder as well.

“Don’t dare to get up before I tell you to,” Kento warned him as he put all the equipment back and wanted to get up to help Fuma.

“I’m sorry,” Ryosuke said and finally he looked at him again, but what he saw wasn’t just a random try to apologies, but Ryosuke struggling with himself to really keep fighting instead of running away.

“As long as you finally got my point it’s fine,” Kento said before he tried to stand up, but Ryosuke reached out for his sleeve and so Kento remained seated, but looked up at him curiously as he didn’t continue.

“Anything else?”

Ryosuke pursed his lips for a moment while he seemed not sure if he wanted to say something or not. But Kento stayed patient and waited, because there was no need to freak at him again. For the first time he had finally made his point completely clear and he could see that this was exactly why Ryosuke was struggling for words out of a sudden.

“I didn’t mean just now…”

Kento tilted his head, signaling Ryosuke that he didn’t get what he meant. Ryosuke sighed, but forced himself to keep going even though it seemed obviously hard.

“I mean I am not just sorry for now, but for everything that happened between us, everything I did.”

“Oh…” Kento let out more than surprised about his words and while Ryosuke finally let go of him again Kento suddenly felt like he wanted to run away instead. This wasn’t a topic he had thought would come up, especially not directly from Ryosuke and he wasn’t sure if he even wanted the topic to be discussed in any way, because it could do more harm than good. “You should rest for now. We can still talk at some other time.”

“No, please listen,” Ryosuke said and alone the way he had chosen his words made Kento remain where he was. “I talked to Keito about everything before and that finally made me realize how much of a burden it must be for you to keep everything a secret from Fuma.”

The words were heavy and made it hard for Kento to find a proper answer, because after all it was true, but even if he understood it, the past was the past and words couldn’t change anything anymore. And even though he should tell Ryosuke none of those words made it out, because somehow a small part of him needed Ryosuke’s words. This part which still suffered under the pressure which would remain forever as long as it was their secret. Even with Keito knowing it wouldn’t change anything for Kento, but it changed a lot for Ryosuke.

“I know that an apology is not what you want to hear and it won’t change anything, but maybe it will help when I tell you that I regret a lot I did. Not just regarding you, but my way of handling things in the first place. The pressure on my shoulders was too heavy and my way of becoming a Triangle leader stained with blood. I thought I could handle it, I was completely sure that I had somehow succeeded in finding my way, but I was wrong. I just wished I could have come to that conclusion before meeting you and the other fight club members. Everything could have been different then and I wouldn’t have put this huge burden on you.”

Kento still remained silent, but Ryosuke didn’t continue either. He waited for a reply, for any sign that his words got understood and even more important, accepted!

“I won’t forgive you,” Kento said without even knowing how the words had formed in his mind, but he didn’t let himself get distracted by Ryosuke’s sudden shocked expression. “I will never be able to forgive you and I think you know that. But I accept your words and am relieved that you found someone who is able to guide you back to the right way. If you really mean your words, then make sure that you won’t ever turn back again. Don’t you dare to make the same mistake twice!”

Ryosuke nodded slowly, before he dared to show a brief smile, even though he knew that there was no way that Kento would return it. “Thank you.”

Kento just nodded and finally got up. “I will go and help Fuma. Take a rest for now. I will take a look at your wounds later.” Without waiting for an answer Kento got up and walked towards the door, his thoughts racing, but for now everything was said. Staying patient would be their toughest challenge over the next days, but with Ryosuke finally willing to fight he could just hope that they would be able to win this battle somehow.

***

Sou spent the next three days locked in a room and he could call himself lucky that the visits he got were just for food, because since the first day he heard screams several times a day and he knew right away that they came from Keito. But the fact that they still tried meant that he wasn’t spilling anything at all and truth was that the only thing he could tell them was the hideout he and Fuma had found, which wouldn’t be of any use anyways, because who would be as stupid and actually go there now that they got captured? Sou on the other hand didn’t have any useful information at all, which made him fear each time the door opened that it could be his death sentence. He wasn’t useful for them at all, which made him wonder from the first moment why they had even bothered putting him into a room, which had even a bed and a bathroom.

Their hideout was an old hotel, so it had a lot of rooms, but his room was on the eighth floor and even if he got the wooden planks off which were nailed over the window, he wouldn’t be able to escape from there.

Several times he had somehow tried to break the door, but there was nothing in the room he could actually use as a weapon and two times someone had heard his attempt to break the door which had ended in two painful warnings that if he tried to break it again that he would pay with a body part next time. So since his third day he was lying on his bed trying to figure out any other plan, but Keito’s screams distracted him all the time and he ended up curled up on the bed with his hands covering his ears until he heard the door open again. He sat up right away, but this time it was a known face he looked at and he shot him a death glare. Ren on the other hand ignored it and walked in with his food and put it on a small table which was the only other furniture in the room. Sensing that Sou would definitely jump at him if he dared to come closer he leant back at the wall with crossed arms.

“What do you want?” Sou hissed at him on which Ren took one of the bread slices from the plate and threw it at Sou who caught it at the last moment.

“Bringing you food as you can see.”

“Then I guess you did what you came for, now leave!”

“Oh, you think you can give me orders here?” Ren asked with a kind of amused, but still dangerous expression as he pushed himself away from the wall and stepped closer to the bed. Sou dropped the bread on the mattress and got to his feet right away on which Ren chuckled. “What? You want to fight?”

“Depends on what you want? What the hell do you want from me? I am not useful to you anyways.”

“Right you failed the mission and teamed up with the Reapers. But luckily you were a little bit too slow to see our attack coming,” Ren said with a mocking expression while he moved through the room instead of provoking Sou even more.

“Yeah your attack was such an amazing move, congratulations! You will be known as the most cowardly troop in whole Tokyo,” Sou replied while clapping his hands on which Ren shot him an angry side glance, but he still didn’t walk up to him.

“Guess there is no way that I will be able to make you talk easily with that attitude.”

“Talk about what? I know nothing?”

“So you also don’t know the whereabouts of your family?”

That actually made something jump inside of Sou. At least Ryosuke had really held his word and had made sure that his men had brought them somewhere safe before they could get attacked.

“Guess that means this was Ryosuke’s doing,” Ren concluded before he moved over to the door. “By the way, if you treasure your life then you shouldn’t maybe openly tell anyone that you know nothing. No information means no value here.”

In other words, better go through any kind of torture before getting killed right on the spot and the fact that Ren had warned him also meant that he was definitely about to experience the same as Keito.

With another mocking smile Ren left the room and Sou dropped back on the mattress with a sigh. He looked at the food and even though he knew he should eat, the lump in his stomach which had suddenly formed would make that impossible. This time he really had to fear for the worst the next time the door opened, but after everything Kento and Ryosuke had done for him there was no way he would go down easily.

***

“Kento, please you have to sleep at some point,” Fuma tried again, because for the last three days Kento looked like a walking ghost. Ryosuke’s condition got worse instead of better and he had tried everything to somehow help him, but without having access to more equipment it was almost impossible to say if he could make it or not. Fuma had forced him to sleep in between, because he was almost fainting anyways, but he was too restless to sleep more than a few unsettled hours. Fuma had tried to go and get some more medication as well as water and food, because they had almost nothing left. At their rushed escape they hadn’t been able to take more than a three days’ supply with them. But their hideout was far away from places where he could actually buy anything and his first try ended with a rushed escape right before he actually ran into some Storm Warrior members. They were getting closer to their hideout, but with Ryosuke being in a worse state than before they wouldn’t be able to escape to another place.

“Kento, are you even listening?”

“What? Sorry, I...I just…” he let out a long sigh and put the pad down again after he had once more tried to somehow stop the boy’s wound from bleeding. Since the last night Ryosuke had a high fever and he didn’t have the right medication to treat it and to make things worse one wound got infected quite badly.

“Hey, it’s okay. You tried everything you could, now we can just hope,” Fuma soothed him and draw circles on his back while Kento let his head drop on his shoulder with another sigh. Fuma tried his best to support him, but Kento had felt the sudden distance between them nevertheless. For now he would just excuse it on the stress and the fact that Fuma hadn’t exactly planned on playing rescuer for Ryosuke.

“I’m sorry,” Kento said on which Fuma pulled him closer and shifted his position so that he would rest with his back at the wall next to where Ryosuke was lying. Kento refused to leave the room anyways then he could at least try and get some sleep here. Without any complains Kento rested against his chest and Fuma stroke his hair carefully.

“Why are you apologizing for something that isn’t your fault?”

“But if I hadn’t gone to Ryosuke in the first place…”

“Then he would be definitely dead by now!” Fuma ended his sentence and as much as Kento drowned in self-pity, he couldn’t deny that he was right. “Just try and rest for a bit, okay? I will have to find a way to get us at least food and water or we are screwed, but I guess it has to wait until tomorrow.” Fuma was prepared for some scolding how it was too dangerous to walk around alone, but there was no reaction and he shifted just a bit to be able to look at Kento’s face and again his exhaustion had forced him to sleep. Trying not to wake him up Fuma grabbed the blanket next to them and threw it over both of them. There was no way they could make a fire in here so it was freezing cold, not just at night time. They had used most of the blankets for Ryosuke, but they needed at least this one and the one they were sitting on for themselves if they didn’t want to freeze to death. Fuma placed a kiss on Kento’s head and leant back on the wall.

“Guess I messed everything up once more,” Ryosuke was suddenly heard next to him and Fuma turned his head to look at him and as much as he didn’t want to feel pity for him, the way the all so high and mighty Ryosuke seemed in so much pain made it hard to act indifferent.

“You should sleep,” Fuma said right away, closing his eyes and leaning his head back on the wall.

“I tried for three days in a row already, but pretending to be asleep so that Kento won’t worry even more is not easy you know?”

“So now that he is asleep you take the chance to go on my nerves?”

“Oh I am also good in talking to myself. You don’t have to reply if you don’t want.”

On that Fuma cracked one eye open again with an annoyed growl. Even in his bad shape he was still able to talk nonsense, but somehow Fuma couldn’t find the will to scold him. As much as Ryosuke tried to hide in how much pain he was and how hard it actually was to try and speak normally, Fuma could see it all over his face. It was the first time that he saw him that vulnerable and just for a second he thought that he deserved it.

“Can’t you convince him to leave me behind?”

“Excuse me, what?” The question startled Fuma extremely, but Ryosuke didn’t seem to understand why.

“You want him to be safe, right? And you are not...exactly fond of me. So just leave! It’s the best for all of us.”

Fuma’s look darkened immediately, but he couldn’t start yelling at him if he didn’t want to wake Kento up.

“If you voice anything like that out in front of Kento I’ll make you pay for it,” Fuma warned him on which Ryosuke’s look turned kind of startled.

“You are as stubborn as Kento, you know? There is nothing you owe me, so why won’t you just leave?” It was the tone he used, the annoyance in it that made Fuma snap and while trying to not move too much he grabbed Ryosuke’s arm and pulled it up. The boy winced when Fuma grabbed his wrist with such a force that his hand startled to feel numb after a few seconds.

“We are not leaving, because Kento won’t allow it! If I force him to leave he will never forgive me! Don’t get me wrong, I am not doing this for you, but for him,” Fuma hissed at him with a great effort of keeping his voice down, but his anger got shown through his grip on Ryosuke’s arm, which had turned even tighter and Ryosuke pulled weakly on it, but in his condition he wouldn’t be able to free himself anyway.

“If you talk to him then he might change his mind and-”

“I heard your conversation,” Fuma interrupted him and the shock on Ryosuke’s face seemed like of a person who had just been sentenced to death. Ryosuke tried to form a question, to voice anything out, but no clear words came out while Fuma kept staring at him with such hate in his eyes that he was almost sure that his look alone could kill him.

“I will just tell you this once! As much as you think of me as stupid I am not blind and I know Kento better than anyone else. I know about what happened back at the Reapers’ hideout when we left Kento with you.” This time Ryosuke made a real attempt to free his arm, because Fuma’s calm voice didn’t match his words at all, because they stabbed him in his chest slow and steady. But Fuma just tightened his grip and buried his nails in the latter’s skin on which Ryosuke let out a whine, but bit his lip right away, because the last both wanted at the moment was waking up Kento. Luckily the exhaustion had made him fall asleep deep enough to not even react to their conversation.

“Kento never told me and I will never ask him about it, because this is the only lie I will forgive him! And even after everything that happened he asked you for help, he risked a lot to protect an innocent boy and he sacrificed all his happiness to rescue you! He told you to not give up, to not return to who you were over the last years, so for once in your life how about you show him the respect and gratitude he deserves, before I lose my patience and make you pay for every tormenting moment you have brought over us?”

Without even bothering to wait for Ryosuke’s reaction he released his arm and the boy pulled it back fast, more than afraid that Fuma could do the same to his neck the next time. Fuma gave him a last hateful glare before he closed his eyes again and it fascinated him how gentle he could move his hands on Kento’s back even though he was that outraged. What he had just told him gave him the right to freak on the spot, to beat Ryosuke until his face would never be the same, but he didn’t do it. He didn’t do or say anything a few months ago, neither did he dash inside the room when he overheard their conversation a few days ago and it was all for Kento.

“I’m-”

“Don’t you dare to voice out those three words,” Fuma interrupted him again. He didn’t even bother with opening his eyes and Ryosuke fell silent. “I don’t care how much you’ve suddenly changed, but it won’t change the past! But maybe now that you have found someone you are even willing to die for I guess you got at least a small part of our pain. So make sure you will forever carry it with you, so that you won’t ever turn back into the asshole you were.”

With that the conversation was over and just a little part of Fuma felt sorry for freaking at him while he was in such a bad condition, but he had bottled everything up over months, not letting anyone even sense how angry he actually was. But now that Ryosuke as the trigger of everything was right in front of him, he finally needed to get everything out and it hit the right person, so there was nothing to feel guilty for.


	8. Chapter 8

Almost a whole week they hadn’t even once tried to get out any information out of him, but since the morning Sou hadn’t heard any more screams and he was sure that most of the day had already past, but it was still completely quiet in the hideout. Until he heard someone unlocking the door and two men came inside. Sou didn’t even try to resist when they grabbed him and dragged him out the room.

As he had expected they just brought him to another room on the same floor, but it was bigger and there were already a few people inside.

“We brought him,” one of them said on which Ren turned towards him. Next to him there was a taller person standing and as he turned around he revealed Keito behind him and Sou gasped. The boy was unconscious and judging by how badly beaten he looked it was better this way. But it was also definitely the reason why they had finally brought him. If Sou didn’t see Keito’s chest rising and falling he would be sure that he was dead already. He didn’t wear a shirt and there were bruises, cuts and even burn marks all over his upper body. His hands were tied to the chair he was sitting on and suddenly he wasn’t sure anymore if he could really go through any kind of torture, even though he really had nothing to tell them which made him feel already more than nauseous.

“Bring him over there, I will take care of him,” the man next to Ren said, on which Ren shot him a scolding look.

“What? You want to handle him yourself?”

“I just want to remind you that he is of no use when he ends up like Keito,” Ren said, but the other one just shrugged and moved to a table with a few tools on it and searched through it, lifting a knife with an approving hum, while the other two men pushed Sou to the other side of the room and tied his hands together over his head on a hook. He was barely standing on his feet, which already put an unpleasant pressure on his shoulders.

The man approached him with the knife without any hesitation, but Ren moved up to him as well.

“Yamashita, I know that look! Please remember what Sakurai said, okay?”

“Why are you always so afraid of his orders?” Yamashita asked kind of indifferent, while playing with the knife.

“Maybe because he is the leader of the Storm Warriors, which you somehow intend to forget! I know you are his right hand, but if torturing them brings no results then you should maybe try it a different way.”

“So what, you want to have a coffee party with them and wait for them to betray secrets, because they suddenly forget all their worries?” While Yamashita formed a teasing smile on his own words Ren just rolled his eyes and turned away, waving his hand.

“Whatever, do what you want. You are the one who gets yelled in in the end. Remember that they both have to stay alive, because we will take them to the meeting with Mugen instead of Ryosuke if we can’t find them.”

Sou looked after Ren kind of startled, because just for a second he had thought he would maybe help him, but the fact that he had just walked out the room without even spending him any attention taught him that he wasn’t to be trusted. But now he had an even bigger problem and that one was smiling down at him as the other two men also left the room.

“Scared?” Yamashita asked with a lopsided smile, but Sou just stared back at him, even though his heart was already hammering against his chest and he could just hope that his expression wouldn’t give away his fear.

“Let’s try this the easy way for now,” Yamashita said in a calm voice and he moved the flat side of the knife under Sou’s chin to lift up his head. “Is there any information you want to give me? Talking openly could spare you a lot of pain.”

Sou opened his mouth to tell him that he knew nothing, but then Ren’s words made him stay silent and he just shook his head. Even if he said that he didn’t know anything, Yamashita wouldn’t believe him, but maybe saying nothing at all was the safest choice for now.

“Guess you want it the hard way. Let’s start with an easy question then: Where is Ryosuke?”

Sou couldn’t hide the chuckle which escaped him and Yamashita raised an eyebrow at him. Sure the question wasn’t funny, but what other important question could he ask him at the moment? It wasn’t like it was the easiest, it was just the only one they had, but neither Keito nor him had an answer to that.

Yamashita put the knife against his collarbone on which Sou tensed, but he still didn’t say anything. With a tight grip around his chin he made sure that he wouldn’t look away and without saying anything he pushed the knife through Sou’s skin and the boy took a sharp breath. Without getting the time to relax Yamashita pushed it into his flesh even deeper and twisted it on which Sou shut his eyes forcefully and bit his cheek from the inside, trying his best to not scream out.

“Such a brave boy, aren’t you? But let me tell you that this is not even my first step of torture, it’s more like an appetizer.”

Yamashita ripped the knife out again on which Sou escaped a hiss. The older one didn’t spend him any attention as he walked back to the table with the tools and put the knife back on it.

“I am not in the mood to take it slow, because it is just a waste of time. I spent so many days with him already and the outcome is really disappointing, you know? Guess with you I have to make my point clear right from the start.”

Instead of taking something from the table he walked to the corner of the room with a small stove placed there. He heard a metallic sound and when Yamashita turned back to him he held a small metal bar which was bright red on one end through the heat of the stove. Sou’s eyes went wide as he realized what he was about to do and he tried to free his hands, but of course it wouldn’t work.

“Oh getting finally scared? Maybe you are in talking mood now?”

Sou swallowed hard before he demanded his head to move and once more he shook his head. So many people have helped him out in such a short time that he wouldn’t lose now, just because for once he had to deal with something alone. Without Kento he wouldn’t have just failed the mission he was forced into, but would have definitely lost his life on that day as well. Never would Ryosuke have spared his life if it wasn’t for Kento.

“The youth of today is so stubborn,” Yamashita said kind of disappointed before he grabbed Sou by the hair and forced his head to the side. “This could sting a little bit.”

Sou would have loved to shot him a snarky reply on that, but before he could do so the hot metal landed on the skin of his neck. There was no chance he could even try to fight against the pain this time and his scream made Yamashita laugh as he added even more pressure on the bar. Sou wanted to take a breath, but no air was filling his lungs, his whole body was suddenly shaking, the pain clouding his thoughts and all he could do was keep screaming as the pain didn’t seem to stop.

If he wouldn’t be forced to be standing, his legs would have definitely given up on him the moment Yamashita finally took the bar away from his neck, revealing a long burn mark on his skin.

“How about we have a talk now or you want this on your face next?”

Sou couldn’t answer, even if he wanted to. For now he needed to get over the first shock, because the pain had been worse than he had expected. How had Keito been able to go through this for so many days? Sou jolted as Yamashita lifted the metal bar in front of his face and he shifted back as much as he could, which resulted in another mocking chuckle from the older one.

“Last chance! Anything you want to tell me?”

To Yamashita’s obvious surprise Sou nodded and he tilted his head in curiosity as Sou looked up at him with a hateful glare.

“Screw you!”

Yamashita’s confused face made Sou almost laugh. Sure he wasn’t sure how long he could keep going, but if the other one thought that he would give up that easily he was mistaking a lot.

“Interesting. You should already prepare for some extremely painful hours then I guess. Let’s see if you can turn them into days.”

This time Sou didn’t even struggle as Yamashita reached out for him and brought the metal bar down once more.

***

Fuma was on his way back to their hideout and he felt relieved that he had succeeded for a second time to get them water and food. Alone he wasn’t able to bring more supplies than for a few days and now that a little bit then a week in total had passed he needed to take the risk to get discovered once more. But to his surprise he didn’t run into anyone this time. The time before he had a tough time finding his way back without getting discovered at every third corner, but now he hoped that they had given up searching in this area and moved to a different district.

To their surprise Ryosuke’s condition had also finally become at least a little bit more stable as it seemed that the boy had finally found the will to fight. Sitting up had been possible over the last days, but even though the fever was gone Kento didn’t let him walk around yet.

When Fuma reached their hideout he saw Kento waiting for him downstairs already and he got ready to scold him, because if he could see him in the dark from this far away, everyone could.

“Didn’t I tell you not to come down?”

“I was worried, you took longer this time,” Kento replied and took one of the bags from Fuma, but he underestimated the weight and he let it almost drop, looking up at Fuma with wide eyes.

“Are both of them that heavy? Fuma what the hell did you think?”

He had taken his and Kento’s bag to get everything, so they were stable enough to carry as much as he could carry and that was a lot after all.

“Didn’t you say it was risky going out all the time? I made sure to bring as much as possible and what we need most is water after all, but it is also the heaviest.”

Kento shook his head, but didn’t scold him. Instead he took a step forward and gave him a short kiss on the lips before he backed off with a smile.

“Thank you. I’m sorry that everything ended up in this mess. Next time I should make sure to stay out of trouble for good.”

“Such a shame that there won’t be a next time.”

Both looked at each other in shock as they hadn’t been the ones saying those words and out of reflex Fuma swirled around, shoving Kento behind him. But before he could even think about an attack he got a punch in the stomach. The force made it impossible for him to take a breath for several seconds and as much as he tried to get a grip he landed on his knees.

“Fuma!” Kento was next to him right away and Fuma tried to push him to the back, to somehow make him leave, but of course he wouldn’t and it was too late anyways.

“Guess this time you weren’t careful enough. You made us search a lot for you actually. I tortured your little friends for days and none of them spilled anything.”

Both boys looked up at the man who had just forced Fuma on his knees and they could already see in his eyes that he was dangerous.

“Yamashita, what shall we do with them?” Another man asked while two more vanished up the stairs. The barricades Fuma built wouldn’t stop them, because after all they had used the stairs before as well and wouldn’t build them up before nightfall again.

Kento jumped up and wanted to stop them, but Yamashita was faster and pulled out a gun, pointing it at him. Fuma forced his body to stand up again and he stepped between them.

“Oh back on your feet already?” Yamashita said, obviously impressed. “Get Ryosuke, I will take care of those two,” Yamashita replied to his comrade and he nodded walking upstairs.

They could hear more people outside and Fuma cursed in silence that he hadn’t thought about them hiding and waiting for them to get careless.

“So who wants to be first?”

When Yamashita pulled the hammer back both of them tensed and Kento wanted to pull Fuma back, but the latter wouldn’t move. There was no way he would let Yamashita shoot him, even when getting shot first meant that he couldn’t protect Kento afterwards anymore.

Before he could pull the trigger though they heard Ryosuke cursing as the others forced him down the stairs. In his condition he could barely stand on his own, so fighting back wasn’t really an option.

“Bring him outside. The meeting should have started already, so we will bring him there directly,” Yamashita ordered and the others dragged him outside even though he tried to stop them. For a short moment he looked at Kento and Fuma and it surprised both that he could actually show such an apologizing expression.

“Mhhh, you know what, this is too boring,” Yamashita said all of a sudden, making them look back at him. With a snap of his fingers four other men came inside and took a grip on the boys. “You deserve to see what happens to him after all your effort to protect him.”

Fuma let out a curse as they tried to push him outside and if he really tried he would definitely be able to fight them off, but Yamashita was still next to them, the gun threatening in his hand. Even if he succeeded, he couldn’t be sure that Kento would be fine and he doubted that he could win against Yamashita easily.

He looked at Kento who stared back at him with a lost expression. After he had tried so hard to safe Ryosuke’s life they had failed in protecting him and getting dragged along could end even worse than just ending it right here on the spot.

There was a truck waiting for them around a few corners and Kento rushed over to Ryosuke right away as he saw him lying on the ground in the back. Fuma followed reluctantly, his eyes still on Yamashita and the other men which sat down closer to the end of the truck to block their way.

There was no need to tie their hands as they wouldn’t dare to attack them anyway. It wasn’t just Yamashita carrying a gun and they were outnumbered anyways.

“Damnit, the wounds are open again,” Kento hissed as he took a look at Ryosuke whose breathing pace was extremely erratic through his tries to free himself, which had resulted with the seams ripping.

“It doesn’t matter anymore, don’t worry,” Ryosuke said and looked up at him with a defeated expression. “You tried and that’s all that matters. Thank you both! I am really sorry that it ended this way.”

Kento shook his head right away, still trying to somehow stop the bleeding, but even with new bandages he wouldn’t succeed, because he would need to sew it again and as Ryosuke had said, there was no need to do so anymore.

“Please, don’t say that...please, after all we went through…” Kento didn’t even hide his sobs and he hit the ground with his fist once. But when he lunged out again Fuma stopped his hand and pulled him against his chest with his back. For a moment the boy struggled, but then he finally gave up and relaxed in his arms. Fuma rested his chin on his shoulder and held him as tight as if it was the last time he could do so and the sad truth was that it really could be.

Ryosuke closed his eyes and remained on the ground, sitting up would just rob him of even more energy. After a moment Kento also calmed down a little bit, but Fuma could still hear the small sobs he tried to hide against his arms.

At least they were together when they had to face whatever would await them as soon as the truck would stop.

 

+++

 

Yes, we reached the end of COMEBACK with a cliffhanger as well, I am sorry X'D

The next part will be WAR CHILD and then all three stories will combine in COMBAT!

NOTICE: I added a 5th part REMAINS, bc COMBAT got way too long, hope you look forward to the remaining parts^^y


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